Aesthetic Judgement

in language, we can distinguish between the content of a sentence and its form – e.g.

• “John loves Mary”,
• “Mary is loved by John”: same content, different form,
• “John hates Mary”: same form, different content;

this distinction can also be applied in the case of works of art, although it may not always be obvious what the content or the form are.

art that has a clear content is called representational, other art, which appears not to be about anything, is called abstract.

it may help to think of art as a form of communication that we can compare with language:

                                   sound, text
language:  speaker/writer    =======================>  listener/reader
                                    language
                               
                               object, event (= it)           
art:       artist (= he/she) =======================>  audience, spectators, ... (= me)
                                  genre, style         + critics (= they)

note: a critic is a specialist who helps us understand a (purported) work of art better, and thereby enables us to evaluate it – so I read critics even after I have attended a concert or finished a novel;
a good piece of criticism, including a good literature lesson in school, should enable me to understand, appreciate and hopefully enjoy a work more.

so when judging a (purported) work of art we can use

• he/she: the artist's intention, (“If I say I have made a work of art, you must accept it as a work of art.”) his/her background, period, biography;

• me: the spectator's or audience's feelings and emotions (“I know what I like!” or: “Everyone likes it, so it is a great song.”)

• it: properties of the work itself, formal aspects like balance, use of colour, intensity, ORIGINALITY;

• they: the general consensus, especially of informed specialists who have studied the art form, (“It must be a great work because I saw it in the museum.”)

for each of these ways, there have been people arguing that it is the only correct one, but in practice we use all of these.