Artistic Progress. Towards an Applied Philosophy of Image-Making

Abstract

The origins of image-making can be traced back over 73,000 years. Image-making in contemporary art differs significantly from that of our ancestors. One explanation for this is that changes in our conception of image-making bring about corresponding changes in image-making itself. However, it remains uncertain whether this transformation represents a progression and to what extent theoretical constructs have played a role. The topic of this thesis is artistic progress. The general question is whether the notion of progress applies to visual art and, in the case it does, in what sense and how? The more specific question is whether progress is intelligible despite art’s pluralism? I show that these concerns are met through the noetic account of artistic progress. According to the noetic account, artistic progress is made with respect to understanding image-making. This affords progress to art-practice through the integration of enhanced understanding.