An Ontological Approach to Theorizing Art and a Spandanand#257;tmak View of Painting

Abstract

The question what is art is a forever open inquiry. The study proposes a formal ontological newlineapproach to theorizing art. This leads us to question the fascinating density of the realms of newlineimagination and freedom of creation, which can only be accessed through chasing formal newlinestructures of the mind and self. newlineTherefore, this inquiry deals with the folding of various categories of existence, in Art and in newlinethe specific act of painting. newlineThe research explores the Indian and Greco-European traditions of metaphysical thought to newlinearrive at a framework for describing the artistic phenomenon of painting. While we finally newlinecommit to the frameworks given in the Kashmiri Saiva darshana and Spanda-shastra therein, newlinethe inquiry journeys into a brief history of formal thought that does not limit itself to regional newlineinterpretative silos. Therefore, in describing the universal Art phenomenon, we enable newlineconversation across cultures around the same theme. newlineThis is a departure from the art-historical mode of theorizing art, while not dismissing the newlinevalue of the sense of past in guiding such an exploration. We endeavor into observing the newlineworkings of the private mind in the work of art, rather than only the existential fact of its newlinematerial presence. Traditions of the practice of observing mental functions, and strains from newlinediverse formal thought traditions, enable opening the mysteries of the phenomena of art, newlineespecially painting. We attempt to clarify the formal states involved in the phenomenon of newlinePainting. newline