“The narcotic of art.” Artistic experience as an impulse for Leon Chwistek’s art criticism Cover Image

„Narkotyk sztuki”. Przeżycie artystyczne jako impuls krytyki artystycznej Leona Chwistka
“The narcotic of art.” Artistic experience as an impulse for Leon Chwistek’s art criticism

Author(s): Paweł Polit
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Formism; multiplicity of realities; imaginary reality; Grupa Krakowska [Cracow Group]

Summary/Abstract: This text discusses the way in which the conception of artistic experience worked out by Leon Chwistek corresponds with his assessments of the most recent artistic phenomena in Polish art formulated by him in the 1930s. It reveals the affinity of this conception with the notion of the „complete plastic sense” describing the special character of the artistic experiments conducted within the milieu of the pre-war Grupa Krakowska [Cracow Group]. Founded upon the premises of Chwistek’s theory of multiple realities, the conception of artistic experience underscores the concomitance of the reception of imaginary reality of an artwork and the impulse to co-create this reality. According to Chwistek, this conception could provide a theoretical grounding for socially engaged art. It was also supposed to serve as a foundation for the project of nominalist aesthetics delineated by Chwistek, the project aimed at working out the intersubjective principles of the assessment of artworks, based on individual acts of reception, by the community of receivers engaged in a public discussion of art. The criteria for assessment of artworks worked out within the framework of this project could be applied in art criticism.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 39
  • Page Range: 45-63
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish