Art Is Expression

Expressionist art philosophy had an important role in the20th western aesthetics, whose major representatives are Benedetto Croce, Robin George Collingwood, Bernard Bosanquet, Edgar Cary, and Arnold Reed. The core concept of expressionism is "expression", its center topic is "art", and its fundamental view is "art is expression". It is a systematic conclusion of traditional western expressionism, as well as a new era for aesthetics, i.e. for art philosophy.What is "expressionism"? It is the premise and basis for studying expressionism to make this problem clear. The word "expression" has gone through a long evolvement in western culture. It gained its meaning as "emotional expression" when romanticism was popular in the19th century, and with this meaning was widely paid attention to and then became a mainstream aesthetic category. In the context of aesthetics, expressionism has both a broad sense and a narrow one. In its broad sense, the rise of expressionism has certain historical background. On one hand, it needs general cultural background, that is, the appeal for reform. On the other hand, it needs profound philosophic background, that is, the philosophy of subjectivity as its foundation, and actual artistic background as well, that is, the flourish of romanticist art. In its narrow sense, expressionism refers to expressionist art philosophy. Expression in itself is intuition, opposite to imitation or reproduction, it means the expression of emotion. Here, expression, intuition, emotion and imagination form a natural alliance and show a kind of theoretical feature quite different from traditional theory of imitation. The development of the20th western art philosophy starts out hence.What is the nature of art? This is a fundamental question that any kind of art philosophy will face and have to answer. Expressionists hold that the nature of art is intuition, while intuition is a kind of cognition which does not involve concept, insofar as mind endows matters with forms, intuition is expression. Art is intuition, i.e. expression. This means that art is not physical fact or utilitarian activity or moral activity or conceptual knowledge. Artistic activity is imaginary in nature, and imagination is a process to realize emotional expression, so art is to express emotions through creating imaginary experience. Expressing emotion is not to arouse emotion, not to describe emotion, not to choose emotion, not to expose emotion. Expression is the expression of emotion; imagination is the object of intuition. When emotion is expressed, it will transform itself into image, and image embodies emotion in intuitive activity. The aesthetic is to let emotion become tangible, that is to say, art is the aesthetic expression of "image-motion".That what art is decides the characteristics of art which is the interpretation and supplementary remarks of the nature of art. In the view of expressionism, art is intuition, i.e. expression, i.e. emotional expression through creating imaginary experience. So of course, art has the following characteristics. The first one is independent freedom. Freedom is the soul of art, pursuing freedom is the inner basis of art. The autonomy of intuition decides the freedom of art; artistic freedom has its inner value. Artistic freedom not only implies that men as subjects are free, but also that all artistic appreciation, creation and criticism activity are free. The second one is non-utilitarian emotionality. Emotion is the basis of art, expressing emotion is the inner requirement of art. Expressive lyricality determinates the emotionality of art. Aesthetic emotion is a superior spiritual element possessed only by human beings, which surpasses the practical and direct utility. Artists ought to pursuit the successful expression of pure emotion. The last one is unreal imagination. Imagination is the source of art, inspiring imagination is the inner drive of art. Imagination is the way of being of art; artists overlook the free land of appreciation through imagination.The significance of classification is evident, but whether the classification of art from the aspect of aesthetics is possible or not is a problem to study in deep. In the expressist art philosophy, the classification of art, as one of its many concerned problems, has not been paid much attention to by researchers. But as the development and change of aesthetic and artiastic conceptions, a few views from it appear its significance. Expressionists hold that those theories on the classification of art in the history of aesthetics result in the accumulation of experiences; they only possess pratical significance but no aesthetic value. To classify art from the perspective of aesthetics and art is impossible, because there are not different forms and degrees in expression, and all kinds of expession are equal in value for appreciation. The forms of art are uncertain, and the peculiarity of mind shows that art cannot be classified. However, the classification of art itself is somewhat reasonable and useful. The difference in the forms of art is mainly owing to artists’different talents, different expressive media and different materials, all of which lead to the inevitability of the classification of art.With a comprehensive survey from the history of art and aesthetics, it is not hard to find out that aestheticians’and artists’views on media, techniques and talents always influence the change of artistic styles, which in turn urges aestheticians and artists to reflect upon their philosophical views. In expressionists’view, fundamentally, intuition doesn’t need external projection and expression doesn’t need delivery. This seems to deny the possibility of artistic creation. Nevertheless, they admit that, as they regard the classification of art, it is inevitable and necessary for artistic creation activity to pursuit eternity based on art. For this reason, expressionists explore this problem deeply. Although they have somewhat different views on some certain problems, they are highly consistent in their general position. They answer a series of problems about art creation such as whether artistic delevery is necessary, whether artistic techniques are necessary and whether artistic genius are possible.On the whole, expressionism, as an important aesthetic school in the twentieth century, not only has profound influence on comtempory western aesthetics, leading to the modernist turn of aesthetics and the ontological, subjectivist and linguistic turn of art studies; but also produces important influence on the development of modern Chinese aesthetics, attracting a few modern Chinese aestheticians with its unique theoretical features, many important ideas whichof were therefore recognized, doubted, criticized and accepted. It also provides basis, defense and motivation for the modernist art to uplift subjectivity, to lay stress on emotion and to emphasize the freedom of imagination. Undoubtdely, expressionism has its theoretical deficiencis mainly embedded in the denial of the physical beauty and practical beauty, in the ignorance of the social purpose of art and the possibility of the classification of art. Moreover, expressionism initiated in modern art philosophy the contest for superiority between expression and imitation, the battle between autonomy and heteronomy of art, and the dispute concerning whether art can be classified. These disputes have become an inevitable theoretical problem in modern philosophical study.