1. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Art-historical background
The rapid succession of one art-historical movement after another in the 20th century
The ongoing experimentation in 20th century art
A brief glance at some of these movements & experiments
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 1

2. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Dada ( )
Marcel Duchamp (American, b. France, )
Surrealism ( )
Paul Delvaux (Belgian, b. 1897)
Abstract Expressionism ( )
Jackson Pollock (American, )
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3. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Franz Kline (U.S., )
Helen Frankenthaler (American, b. 1928)
Pop Art ( )
Jasper Johns (U.S., b. 1930)
Roy Lichtenstein (U.S., b. 1923)
Andy Warhol (U.S., )
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4. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Minimal Art (1960s)
Ad Reinhardt (U.S., )
Donald Judd (U.S., b. 1928)
Carl André (U.S., b. 1935)
Conceptual Art (1960s & 1970s)
John Baldessari (U.S., b. 1931)
Jenny Holzer (U.S., b. 1950)
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5. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
The New Realism (1965- ?)
Richard Estes (U.S., b. 1936)
Chuck Close (U.S., b. 1940)
Philip Pearlstein (U.S., b. 1924)
Recent trends
Christo (Bulgarian, U.S., b. 1935)
Susan Rothenberg (U.S., b. 1945)
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6. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Anselm Kiefer (German, b. 1945)
Jenny Holzer (U.S., b. 1950)
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7. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
George Dickie’s instutitional theory of art
b. 1926
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois-Chicago
From Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis. Ithaca: NY: Cornell UP, See also Lyas’s discussion in chap. 4.
Rejects the neo-Wittgensteinian argument of Morris Weitz that art cannot be defined.
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8. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Weitz’s argument (for more details, see Lyas 85ff)
Art is an open concept-- is open in part because of the emphasis on creativity in art
But the inability to define art should not raise any philosophical anxieties because there is an alternative way of identifying art--by the family-resemblance method
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9. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Lyas’s comment on Weitz’s argument: Essentialists theories of art can usually be extended to take account of new forms of art (88).
Lyas did this with the representational theory of art.
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10. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Dickie’s attempt to construct an essential definition of art
A work of art is
“(1) an [original] artifact
(2) a set of the aspects of which has had conferred upon it
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11. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
[3] the status of candidate for appreciation
[4] by some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld).” (464)
Clarifications
(1) artifact - means that human intentionality is present
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12. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
(2) conferring of status - analogy to conferring of knighthood, legal indictment
(3) candidate for appreciation - does not have to be actually appreciated
(4) the institution - who does this include?
“essential core” vs peripheral group
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13. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Prime examples of the theory at work -- Duchamp’s readymades
What about natural objects? Can they ever be works of art?
What about a work created by a non-human animal? Can it be a work of art?
Dickie’s closing comment: The institutional theory has the potential to enhance creativity in art. Why?
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14. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Critical evaluation of Dickie’s theory
On the differences between the Institutional theory & other theories
The only theory which does not appeal to a feature of the art object
The only theory which takes into account the context of the work of art--specifically, the artworld (see Lyas 93)
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15. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Is membership in the artworld too easy?
Is the act of conferring too easy?
The disanalogy between conferring on an object the status of art & other types of conferring? (see Lyas 92)
Does the theory allow too much as art?
Provides no lead for standards for evaluation
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16. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
An attempt to patch up these difficulties: Jerrold Levinson’s version of the Institutional Theory (“Defining Art Historically,” British Journal of Aesthetics 19 (1979): ). Discussed in Lyas 93 ff).
His theory of art: “A work of art is a thing intended for regard-as-a-work-of-art: regard in any of the ways works existing prior to it have been successfully regarded.”
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17. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
In encountering an avant garde work of art, one can
(1) show that the work has something in common with historical works of art, or
(2) show that the work is intended to be appreciated in ways that art has previously been appreciated (94)
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