So far, our research object is art, and the basis of art is the unity of meaning and image, including the subjectivity of artists and the unity of their contents, meanings and works. It is this concrete unity that can provide substantive standards for the content and its forms of expression, and it runs through all works.
From this point of view, we find that in the origin of oriental art, spirit is not independent and free, but we have to look for absoluteness from natural things, so we regard natural things themselves as sacred. In the further development, the classical art represented the Greek gods as individuals. They were free and full of spirit, but they were basically bound by the natural form of human beings, and regarded the form of human beings as a positive factor. Only romantic art immersed its spirit into its unique inner life for the first time, and the physical body, external reality and general secular things that are opposite to this inner life were initially considered illusory. Although the absolute spirit can only be revealed through these external factors, these external factors have gradually gained positive significance.
one
These world views formed the essential spirit of religion, nationalities and times, which not only penetrated into art, but also penetrated into all fields of real life at that time. Because everyone is the son of his era in various activities, whether political, religious, artistic or scientific, he has the task to create the basic content, significance and necessary image of that era, so the mission of art lies in finding the appropriate artistic expression for the spirit of a nation. As long as the artist is unified with the concrete content of this world outlook and religious view and has a firm belief in it, he will really take this content and its performance seriously; That is to say, this kind of content is infinite and true in his own consciousness, and he is in the original unity with this kind of content in his deepest subjectivity. The image he uses to express this kind of content is the last, inevitable and best one for him (as an artist) to express the soul of absolute and general things. Because the substantive content contained in his materials is inherent in himself, he will inevitably adopt some form of expression. In fact, the content and its proper form are inherent in the artist himself, that is, the essence of his existence. This is not his imagination, but his own essence, so what he has to do is to make this truly essential thing objective (objectify), let it show and form a vivid and concrete image.
Only in this case can the artist be fully inspired spiritually to deal with his content and expression. His creation is not the product of subjective arbitrariness, but comes from himself, himself, this substantive soil and this foundation. This basic content will not be calm until the artist finds an individual image that conforms to its concept. But today, if we use a Greek god, or as a Protestant, and use Saint Mary as the subject of sculpture or painting, we will not take this material seriously. What we lack is a deep belief. Although in the era of religious belief, artists are not necessarily what people generally call pious people. Generally speaking, artists are not the most pious people without exception. The only requirement is that the content of art should be something substantial in the artist's consciousness, or the most inner truth, and make him realize the inevitability of using a certain expression. Because an artist is also a natural thing in his creation, his artistic skill is also a natural (natural) talent. His activity is not a conceptual activity completely opposite to his perceptual material, but it is only in pure thinking that it is combined with material, but it has not lost its natural appearance, closely combined with the object, believed in the object, and came together with the object with its innermost self. At this time, subjectivity completely penetrates into the object (object), and works of art are completely produced from the complete inner state and strength of genius. Such products are firm, and all the heroic spirit is condensed on themselves. This is the basic condition of artistic integrity.
two
During its development, the situation has completely changed. However, we should not regard this change as a purely accidental unfortunate event brought about by the poverty of the times, the consciousness of prose and the lack of important purport. This change is actually the activity and progress of art itself. Since art wants to turn its inherent material into the object of perceptual observation, every step in this process will help to liberate itself from what it expresses. For an object, if we put it in front of the naked eye or eyes through art or thinking, we can see everything inside, everything is clear, and we won't be interested in this object anymore without leaving hidden inner secrets. Because only fresh activities can arouse interest. The spirit is only willing to work on an object, when it still contains something ambiguous, that is, only when matter and we are still in the same body. However, if art has clearly expressed the basic world outlook contained in its concept and the content scope belonging to this world outlook from all directions, then for a certain nation and a certain era, art will get rid of this certain content implication; After that, only when it is necessary to object to the only effective content before, will it cause the need to go back and find the content. For example, in the Greek era, Alec Stauffen rose up against the ready-made things at that time, and Lucian rose up against the whole Greek past. At the end of the Middle Ages, Alioto and Cervantes rose up against chivalry in Italy and Spain.
In the past, due to the nationality and era to which the artist belongs, the substantive content he wants to express must be limited to a certain world outlook and the scope of its content and expression. Now, we find an opposite situation, which has only recently achieved satisfactory development and gained its importance. In our time, all ethnic groups have been educated in thinking and criticism, and among us Germans, even artists have been influenced by free thinking, which makes these artists find that materials (content) and forms have become "whiteboards" when creating, especially after all the necessary stages of romantic art have been completed. Today's artists are confined to a special content and the expression suitable for this content is a thing of the past, so art has become a tool of freedom. No matter what kind of content, art can be handled according to the skill level of the creative subject. In this way, artists can be detached from some established reverence forms and expressions, act freely and independently, and are not bound by the content meaning and observation methods that were sacred and eternal in the past consciousness. Any content, any form, is the same, and can be used to express the artist's inner life, natural nature and unconscious entity; Artists don't care about any kind of content, as long as they don't violate the laws of general beauty and the forms of artistic treatment. Today, no matter can't see this relativity. Even if some materials are promoted to be non-relative, art does not absolutely need to be expressed. Therefore, artists treat their own content completely like dramatists, and can show people things different or unfamiliar with themselves. Now, of course, he also wants to put his genius into his works and weave his unique materials into his works, but whether these materials are general or accidental; A more accurate description of his personality is not himself. In this respect, he used his knowledge of images, expressions and past art forms. These factors themselves are irrelevant to him, and they become important only because he thinks they are just right for one theme or another.
In addition, in most kinds of arts, especially in plastic arts, themes are provided by external artists; The artist works according to the terms of the employer's order. When he comes across religious or secular stories, scenes, portraits and church buildings, all he cares about is what kind of works he can make with this theme. Although he is also very careful to experience the set content, it is only a material for him after all, and it is not a direct substantive thing in his own consciousness. There is another way that doesn't help him much, that is, transplanting some world views from the past into himself as nutrition. For example, some people have recently converted to Catholicism for the sake of art, with the aim of pinning their hearts and restraining their artistic expression to some extent, which is self-sustaining (absolute). Artists don't need to make their souls perfect, and they don't need to care that their souls are saved. His great free mind, before starting to create, must first have self-knowledge, self-confidence and confidence. Great artists in modern times, in particular, must have the free development of their spirit, and should not be bound by such factors as superstition and prejudice that can only be used by certain established ways of observation and expression, but should restore them to factors that can be controlled by a free mind, and should not regard them as absolute sanctification conditions for creation or expression, but only as means to serve higher content.
Because the artist's talent has been liberated from the limitations of a certain established art form in the past, he is independent and free, and he can make any form and material obey his arbitrary instructions and scheduling.
three
Finally, if we want to ask from the general standpoint of art at this stage, what contents and forms are in line with its characteristics, the answer is roughly as follows.
Generally, art types first involve the absolute truth achieved by art, and their special principle is how to specifically understand that all works are absolute to consciousness, and they already contain the kind of content implication that should be expressed in what way. In this respect, we can see that in symbolic art, the content is natural, and the form of expression comes from natural things and individuality; In classical art, content is spiritual personality, which is manifested as material existence in front of us, and it is dominated by the abstract inevitability of fate; In romantic art, the content is spirituality and its inherent subjectivity, and the external image is always accidental for the internal aspect of this subjectivity. This last art, like the early ones, is also based on the sacred things of self-sufficiency. However, this sacred thing should be objectified and characterized, thus developing into subjective secular content. The infinity of personality is first manifested in honor, love and loyalty, and then in special personality, which is closely combined with some special content in human existence. Finally, humor appears, which eliminates the connection between characters and a particularly limited content, and can shake or even eliminate all qualitative things, thus making art transcend its own boundaries.
When art transcends its own boundaries, it shows that people return to themselves and go deep into their own hearts, thus getting rid of the strict restrictions on the scope of certain established content and mastery mode, and making people become their new gods. The so-called "human" is the profound and noble quality of human mind, and it is the universal human nature seen in sadness, joy, hope, action and fate. Since then, the artist has obtained his artistic content from himself. He has actually defined his own human spirit and observed, thought and expressed the infinite aspects of his emotions and situation. Anything that can be active in the human mind is not strange to this human spirit. The meaning of this kind of content cannot be absolutely determined by artistic means. Both the content and the image of expression are subject to the artist's arbitrary creative activities, and any purport will not be ruled out, because art is no longer to express what is considered absolute at a certain stage of its development, but everything that can make ordinary people feel cordial. Faced with such a vast and colorful material, we must first make a request: the way to deal with the material should generally show the current mental state.
Of course, modern artists can also be neighbors with the ancients of different times; Being a homeric poet, although the last one, is still very good; Even works that reflect the romantic artistic tendency in the Middle Ages still have their functions. However, the universality, profundity and characteristics of a theme today are one thing, but the handling of this theme is another. No poet like Homer or Sophocles can appear in our time. Everything that once sang so beautifully and spoke so happily has been sung and said. These materials and the way to observe and understand them are out of date. Only now it's fresh, and the rest are stale, getting stale. We should criticize the French from the perspective of history and aesthetics. They portrayed the heroes of Greece and Rome, as well as China and Peru, as princes and princesses of France, and conveyed the thoughts and feelings of Louis XIV and Louis XV to these ancient people and foreigners. If these thoughts and feelings are more profound and beautiful, this method of turning the past into the present will not have such a bad influence on art. On the contrary, all materials, no matter which nationality or era they come from, can only be deeply rooted in people's hearts and let us feel and appreciate the truth and have artistic authenticity. It is the immortal human nature that shows and plays a role in its various meanings and infinite changes. It is this treasure of human situation and emotion that can constitute the absolute content implication of our art today.
Now that we have made a general definition of the characteristics of the artistic content in this stage, let's review the forms taken by romantic art in the final stage of our discussion. On the one hand, we especially point out that the decline of art is due to the imitation of accidental shapes of external things, on the other hand, we also point out that it tends to be liberalized because of humor, that is, subjectivity tends to be liberalized according to its inherent contingency in humor. In this conclusion, we can also point out the connection between the two extreme tendencies of romantic art within the scope of the above materials. In the process of transition from symbolic art to classical art, we have discussed the transition forms such as images, metaphors and proverbs, and now we should also point out similar transition forms in romantic art. In these transitional forms, the main feature of the way of thinking is the split between internal meaning and external images, which is eliminated by the artist's main activities, especially in inscriptions, which may be transformed into unity. From the beginning, romantic art showed that it was satisfied with the deeper division in its inner life. Because objective things are generally not completely suitable for the spirit of meditation and self-reflection, this inner life is either cut off or indifferent to objective things.
With the development of romantic art, this contradiction and opposition have developed to such a point that their only interest is either on accidental external things or on the same accidental subjectivity. However, whether it is satisfied only from external things or from the expression of the subject's personality, according to the principle of romantic art, it can turn to the phenomenon that the mind is immersed in the object; On the other hand, humor can also see the object and its form from the subject's reflection, so we get a kind of intimate emotion of the mind to the object, which seems to be a kind of humor to the object. But this kind of intimacy can only be partial, and can only be expressed within the scope of a short song or a fragment in a complete masterpiece. If you completely extend yourself to objective things, you will have actions and deeds, which requires an objective description. But the main thing to consider here is the emotional self-infiltration of the mind into the object, which can be extended, but it is only a subtle activity of the subject's imagination and emotion-a sudden idea, but it is not purely accidental and arbitrary, but an internal movement when the spirit is completely concentrated on the object, and it has become its own interest center and content.
Here, we can compare this last flower of romantic art with the ancient Greek inscription, in which the above form appeared in its earliest and simplest shape. The characteristic of this form is that when it involves an object, it is not just a simple name, not an inscription or label to explain what the object is, but a profound emotion, a pertinent originality, a wise thinking and a positive imagination, so that the most subtle things become active and open through the understanding of poetry. This kind of poems can describe an object, a tree, a mill, a spring, living or dead at will, and can show endless changes. Every nation has written such poems. But this kind of poetry is necessarily secondary, and generally tends to be delicate. Especially for people who are educated in thinking and language, most things and relationships can touch an idea, and he can express it like a letter. This kind of empty and repetitive singing (although adding a little new tricks every time) will soon get boring. Therefore, the main thing of art at this stage is that the mind, together with its inner life, should be completely immersed in the situation and scene with profound spirit and rich consciousness, live there and experience the life of the object, so as to create a fresh, beautiful and valuable work according to that object.
In this respect, Persians and Arabs in particular have created some images, which show the grandeur, freedom and joy of the East, and treat the imagination of the object with a contemplative attitude. They provide a shining example, which is still useful for poets who express their inner life now. Spaniards and Italians have also made outstanding achievements in this kind of poetry. Klopp stoke mentioned Peterak, of course, and said:
Peterak sang the praises of Laura in his poems.
It is beautiful to the viewer, but not to the lover.
However, klopp Stoke's own love poems are full of moral feelings, sentimental yearning and passionate feelings for immortal happiness, while Peterak won our surprise and praise with the freedom shown by his noble feelings. Although he also expressed his attachment to the object he loved, he was satisfied with his feelings. When the theme of poetry is limited to wine and love, limited to restaurants and maids who pour wine, this attachment and longing is always inevitable. For example, Persian poets like the image of extreme luxury; But imagination doesn't make the object become the object of sensory desire here. Its main interest is only in the freedom of this fantasy itself. It regards all joys and sorrows as game scenes in the most intelligent way. Among modern poets, Goethe and Lecktor, Hu Chuangji of the East and the West, mainly show this kind of intellectual freedom and cordial and profound imagination of the subject. Goethe's poem in The Creation of the East Lake in Xi is very different from his previous poems. For example, in Welcome and Farewell, the language and description are beautiful and the emotion is sincere, but the situation is average, the ending is stale and the free imagination has no effect. The poem "Reunion" in The Creation of Xi Donghu Lake is completely different. Here, love is carried out completely in imagination, expressed through imaginary activities, happiness and bliss. In this kind of works, we generally can't see the subject's desire, actual love or sensory desire. What we see is the pure happiness of the object, endless imagination, childish games and jokes, the freedom shown by the rhythm, and the kindness and joy that the soul feels in its own free activities. A bright and clear image elevates the mind above all kinds of interference beyond the limited reality.
The research on the special type of artistic ideal produced in its development process can stop here. I have discussed these types in detail in order to explain the content used by these types, which has produced its own corresponding forms of expression. Because in art, as in all human work, it is always the content meaning that plays a decisive role. According to its concept (essence), art has no other mission, its mission is only to properly express what is full of content as the current perceptual image. Therefore, the main task of art philosophy is to understand this substantive content and what its aesthetic expression is through thinking.