Sunday, June 29, 2008
Corporeal poetry
"I call architecture frozen music"
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, novelist, philosopher
This is not, however, what the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel would call architecture. Instead, Hegel believed in a hierarchy of the fine arts where architecture and music were on near opposite ends of the spectrum. He considered architecture to be the lowest of the fine arts while poetry held the highest position in his order (music was second only to poetry).
But what was the basis for Hegel's classification? Potential.
Poetry, in Hegel's opinion, has the greatest chance of transcending the limits of material and representation to express the essence of art. Architecture, on the other hand, is dependent upon tools, tradesmen, materials, construction and clients before the nature of its expression can be recognized. The pure art of the mind seemingly eclipses the art of stone.
This assessment supposes that the conventions of architecture are inherently detrimental to its effectiveness in the expression of art. Without even considering the content or the representation of symbolism, it seems that Hegel stacked the odds of aesthetics against architecture. Goethe on the other hand, seems to suggest that there is less of a hierarchy that defines fine art. Architecture as frozen music makes music a fluid architecture and suggests that the differences between the arts is nothing more than the sturdiness of a building and the ephemera of a song. Thus the medium of expression is irrelevant while the quality of expression defines the art.
To my knowledge, Goethe never tried to challenge Hegel on his philosophy of aesthetics, but I suppose that I may. A hierarchy of the fine arts accepts certain presuppositions that I cannot agree with. It is trying to objectively describe and define a quality of human existence that is marked by its open subjectivity. To generalize the arts in relation to each other is impossible and selfish because it discards the opinions of all in favor of the opinion of an individual. The subjectivity of art is then removed and the objectivity of a science replaces it.
Perhaps Hegel did not observe the death of art; perhaps he killed it with reason.
So, in order to close my opinion on the topic, I will take Goethe's quote one step farther and proclaim that Architecture is corporeal poetry. This loops Hegel's hierarchy and suggests that the fine arts exist on the same plane and can only be qualified on content and context that every individual perceives separately.
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