Year of Award
1983
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Philosophy
Department or School/College
Department of Philosophy
Committee Chair
John Lawry
Abstract
This thesis attempts to approach the meaning of art through an intensive exploration of a single painting: Wheatfield with Crows, by Vincent van Gogh.
To begin with, this involves an analysis of the activity of the artist; firstly, through a critical review of the psychoanalytical literature concerning the artist, and, secondly, through a sociological analysis of the artist’s cultural melieu. The psychological approach attempts to understand the painting as the result of certain internal causes, i.e., contradictions in Vincent’s personality. The sociological approach attempts to understand the painting as the result of external causes, i.e., the objective social conditions of the time. Philosophically speaking, the weak point of both approaches is their reliance upon causal explanation.
Finally, through a critical review of the art-historical literature, which is itself also riddled with contradictions, we begin to approach a philosophical understanding of both the painting and the painter as issuing from the fundamentally paradoxical nature of our encounter with the "things themselves."
Recommended Citation
Howell, Michael T., "What is the meaning of... (Wheatfield with Crows, by Vincent van Gogh)?" (1983). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12258.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12258
© Copyright 1983 Michael T. Howell