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, )
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 2

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)
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 6

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, 1974.
Rejects the neo-Wittgensteinian argument of Morris Weitz that art cannot be defined.
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 7

8. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Weitz’s argument
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
Dickie proposes that essentialist theories of art can usually be extended to take account of new forms of art.
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 9

10. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Dickie’s attempt to construct an essential definition of art
With the turn away from representational art, we know know that representation is not the essence of art.
And it is not some feature of the art object which makes it a work of art because there are no “exhibited” features shared by all works of art.
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11. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Thus we need to look at nonexhibited properties.
The notion of the “artworld”
Made up of many system & subsystems -- e.g.s, theater, music, painting & Dada, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art
E.g., of Duchamp & Dada & ready-mades
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12. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Dickie’s definition of art: “A work of art in the classificatory sense is (1) an artifact (2) a set of the aspects of which has had conferred upon it the status of candidate for appreciation by some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld)” (229).
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13. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
(1) Artifact
(2) Act of conferring
Analogy to legal conferral
(3) The institution
Who is included?
Essential core
(4) Candidate for appreciation
Is there a special aesthetic appreciation?
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14. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Additional comments (not in Wartenberg selection)
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?
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15. Dickie’s institutional theory of art
Dickie’s claims that the institutional theory enhances art. How?
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 15

16. 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.
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17. 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?
Does the theory allow too much as art?
Provides no lead for standards for evaluation
Dickie's institutional theory of art ~ slide 17