Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T12:27:14.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

“The anti-developmental, the anti-narrative, the anti-historical”: Mondrian as a paradigmatic artist for empirical aesthetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2013

Chris McManus*
Affiliation:
Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United [email protected]://www.ucl.ac.uk/medical-education/

Abstract

In addition to general criticisms of scientific studies on empirical aesthetics, Bullot & Reber (B&R) particularly criticise two “representative studies” that manipulated paintings by Mondrian, those studies seemingly, “fail[ing] to consider the predictions suggested by a contextualist approach to the appreciation of imbalance” (sect. 4.2, para.2). Those criticisms are unjustified, both within the approaches of empirical aesthetics and the historical context and aims of Mondrian's work.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blotkamp, C. (1994) Mondrian: The art of destruction. Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
Cheema, B. (1989) An investigation comparing aesthetic preference responses to original Mondrian compositions and their computer modified counterparts [unpublished BSc thesis]. University College London.Google Scholar
Cooper, H. & Spronk, R. (2001) Mondrian: The transatlantic paintings. Harvard University Art Museums.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, M., Betz, J., Klein, C. & Rosenberg, R. (2010) Dem Auge auf der Spur: Eine historische und empirische Studie zur Blickbewegung beim Betrachten von Gemälden. IMAGE: Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft 11:2941.Google Scholar
Green, C. (2012) Mondrian | | Nicholson – Nicholson | | Mondrian: In parallel. In: Mondrian | | Nicholson: In parallel, ed. Green, C. & Wright, B., pp. 1339. Courtauld Gallery.Google Scholar
Green, C. & Wright, B. (2012) Catalogue. In: Mondrian | | Nicholson: In parallel, ed. Green, C. & Wright, B., pp. 87147. Courtauld Gallery.Google Scholar
Krauss, R. E. (1979) Grids. October 9(50):64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locher, P. J., Overbeeke, K. & Stappers, P. J. (2005) Spatial balance of color triads in the abstract art of Piet Mondrian. Perception 34(2):169–89. DOI: 10.1068/p5033.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McManus, I. C., Cheema, B. & Stoker, J. (1993) The aesthetics of composition: A study of Mondrian. Empirical Studies of the Arts 11(2):8394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plumhoff, J. E. & Schirillo, J. A. (2009) Mondrian, eye movements, and the oblique effect. Perception 38:719–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reber, R. (2012) Processing fluency, aesthetic pleasure, and culturally shared taste. In: Aesthetic science: Connecting minds, brains, and experience, ed. Shimamura, A. P. & Palmer, S. E., pp. 223–49. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rowell, M. (1971) Interview with Charmion von Wiegand, June 20, 1971. In: Piet Mondrian 1872–1944, Centennial exhibition, ed. Solomon, R. Guggenheim, Foundation, pp. 7786. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.Google Scholar