City College of Angeles

Barangay Pampang, Angeles City

Institute of Arts Sciences and Education

The artwork from a perceptual point of view with the role of Rudolf Arnheim and the
psychology of the Gestalt

Gestalt psychology was the foundation of Rudolf Arnheim’s approach to art. Reviewing
Arnheim’s long and productive career, it becomes useful to assess his relationship to the evolving
theory. By paying special attention to the issues of (1) perceptual abstraction and visual thinking,
(2) perceptual dynamics and expression, and (3) perceptual ‘goodness’ and beauty, it can be seen
the degree to which Arnheim actually altered the basis of the general theory of Gestalt psychology,
affirming the centrality of art in its purview.

I. Perceptual abstraction and Visual thinking

a. Perceptual Abstraction and Art

b. Relations between art and abstraction presuppose a revision of certain psy-

chological concepts.

This phenomenological imperative,of taking the best of art to test the needs of psychological
theory,stands diametrically opposed to the trends of contemporary prac-
tice. Arnheim did not wish to directly challenge Stimulus-Response theory by discussing its
reduction of abstraction to mere“stimulus generalization” (e.g., Lashley & Wade,
1946). Instead,he exposed the intellectualist prejudices that had infected discus-sions of art. At
issue was the ability of the perceptual system toabstract, to “represent individual cases through
configurations of general categories”. Because all perceptual achievementsincluded this
“cognitive” feat, it was mistaken to label some modesof thinking (or even works of art) “concrete”
or “abstract”;all were abstract

c. Visual Thinking

Visual thingking (1969, p. 189), Arnheim used Goldstein andScheerer’s work to show how
abstraction is not withdrawal, northat concrete behavior is concept-blind. It is attached to the situ-
ation and the “abstraction” sought by Goldstein and Scheerer thenmust be understood as a
particular kind of relation and verbalresponse based on real abstraction.

II. Dynamics and Expression

The content of a scientific theory or artistic solution cannot bedivorced from dynamic, or
“physiognomic,” qualities.

a. The Gestalt Theory of Expression” (1949/1966)

b. The Power of the Center (1982/1988).

 City College of Angeles
Barangay Pampang, Angeles City
Institute of Arts Sciences and Education

III. “Goodness” and Beauty

Arnheim called expression the byproduct of perceptual organi-zation, the tension-laden trade
offs from simple percepts, those(combinations of) centric systems compromised by eccentric vec-
tors. The notion of a “simple” and “centric” percept raises the issueof those “good”
or pra¨gnant forms presumed to be stable in thefield processes first proposed by Ko¨hler.
Defining these privilegedforms is of the utmost importance, for to call a configuration a“Gestalt,”
is already to make a qualitative judgment. Obviously,the idea that “good” Gestalten placed one on
the road to explainingesthetic phenomena was what so excited Arnheim in his early work.

a. “Law of pra¨gnanz” or “tendency toward pra¨gnanz.”

 City College of Angeles
Barangay Pampang, Angeles City
Institute of Arts Sciences and Education

John Dewey's Art Progressive Education

As Experience has profoundly influenced music education and arts education as a whole.
Art cannot be existing as intellectual understanding. Art must be a lived experience. Experiencing
music by making music engages people through the act of singing, performing, and listening as a
dynamic connection with the moment. Through Dewey, we come to understand the importance of
making art as a dynamic natural activity of human experience.

John Dewey believed every person is capable of being an artist, living an artful life of
social interaction that benefits and thereby beautifies the world. In Art as Experience, Dewey
reminds his readers that the second Council of Nicea censored the churchs use of statutes and
incense that distracted from prayer. Dewey, in an interesting turnabout, removes dogma from the
church, but lauds the sensory details that enable higher understanding of human experience.
Dewey evokes a paradox: the appreciation and ne

For Dewey, art functions as experience. Processes of inquiry, looking and finding meaning are
transformative, extending connections with what is good and right. Expanded perceptions open
venues for understanding and action. Attention to detail excites potential for meaning, yielding
important societal insights, previously taken for granted. Transformative experiences occur when
people intuit new concepts, that occasion seeing in valued ways. Art communicates moral purpose
and education. Dewey believes moral purpose is justifiable, art conveying messages that stimulate
reflection on purposeful lives. Dewey is a pragmatist whose attraction to art postulates it as a
means to an end because he envisions the end as just and fair: democracy. Art as the Exemplar
John Dewey believed every person is capable of being an artist, living an artful life of social
interaction that benefits and thereby beautifies the world. In Art as Experience (1934), Dewey
reminds his readers that the second Council of Nicea, 787, censored the churchs use of statues and
incense that distracted from prayer. Dewey, in an interesting turnabout, removes dogma from the
church, but lauds the sensory details that enable higher understanding of human experience.
Dewey evokes a paradox: the appreciation and need for the experiential artifact, but art as catalyst
to realms beyond the physical.