The Visual Sense and the Power of Art

The visual arts or simply, art is a visual experience. In this paper, I will outline based on a phenomenological approach, what it means to truly experience art mediated as it is by the visual apparatus and which in turn confers a certain body-orientation. This “orientation” is what then fuels an inner experience, that is to say emotions and flights of thought or ideas. To the extent one is visually engaged both as practitioner and viewer, so one’s experience quo the work of art is heightened. In the first part of the paper, I will model an ideal embrace of the eye as an organ of and in the body in seeing art proper. Then I will see what criticism may be levelled at such a thesis. In the last part of this essay, I will take into account such criticism and propose a more accurate model using examples culled from the history of art. The implication of such an approach is to see art both as biological/physiological as well as a psychodynamic and philosophical project. Moreover, such an approach suggests a more unified vision of art rather than the warped Cartesian dualism toward a more integrated and holistic approach to persons and to aesthetic awareness or experience in general