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ISMAY BARWELL

How Does Art Express Emotion?

I. the emotions are complex, ambiguous, con-


fused, or with a peculiar quality of their own
FROM EACH of the traditional theories of art which is only revealedby attendingto the object
something useful can be learned, even if any itself and which resists description in other
attemptto determinethe "essence" of art must words or in words at all. In particularit might
fail. Romantic theorists taught us to notice and be impossible to sum up the emotions with neat
value the expressiveness of (at least some) labels-happy, sad or angry. When we are
works of art. They did have a rather narrow unable to describe the emotion expressed in a
view aboutwhat works of artwere expressive of work of art in (other) words we tend to use the
and frequently spoke as though it were only short phrase "expressive."
emotions, moods, and feelings which got ex- I said that romantictheories of art were to be
pressed in art. However, as Roger Scrutonsays, commended because they drew attention to
works of art can be said to express "thought, expressiveness in art. However, they are not to
attitude,character,in fact, anythingthat can be be commendedfor the accountthey gave of this
expressed at all. For example, Watteau's aesthetic feature. How works of art can be
Embarcation a Cythere can be said to express expressive of emotion and thus sad, happy, or
the transience of human joys, Shakespeare's melancholy must pose itself as a problem for
Measure for Measure to express the essence of anyone who believes both that works of art are
Christiancharity."' not conscious entities and that only conscious
In this article I am going to limit my discus- entities can have feelings and emotions. This
sion to emotions or qualities which describe means that the way in which a painting is sad
what we feel. If people can feel vigorous, cannot be exactly the same as the way in which
merciless, sad, joyful, gentle, quiet, or tender, a personis sad, but it cannotbe exactly different
and if these are propertiesthat can be attributed either. One could not understandwhat it means
to works of art, then these are the propertiesin to call a painting sad or how to recognize the
which I am interested. sadness in the paintingif one did not first know
The giving of lists when one is introducing what it meant to say that a person is sad and
and talking about these propertiescan give rise how to recognize her sadness.
to the impressionthatthey are as easily detected There are two parts to any complete account
and namedas in a child's drawingof a face with of how works of art can be expressive of
droopingmouth, downcast eyes, and tears slid- emotions. The first part consists in giving an
ing down the cheeks. But, of course, this analysis of the meaning of such sentence sche-
impressionwould be very misleading. It might mata as
be as difficult to name and describe the emo-
tions expressed in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers (I) "This artworkis E"
Karamazov or Henri Rousseau's The Sleeping (2) "This artworkis expressive of E-ness"
Gypsy as it would be to describe how one feels (3) "This artworkexpresses E-ness"
abouta brokenmarriage.This might be because (4) 'This artworkis an expression of E-ness"

is a senior lecturer in the philosophy


ISMAYBARWELL where "E-ness" standsfor the name or descrip-
departmentat Victoria University, Wellington. tion of some emotion or feeling (sadness) and
? 1986 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
176 B ARWELL

"E" for the adjectivederivedfrom this name or spontaneous expression of emotion were ex-
description(sad). pressions at all. They were merely "spewings
The second partof the complete accountis to forth" or ways of "giving vent to" the emotion
explain the relation which holds between art- in question.3
works and emotions when one of the former is This accountmakes the expressive properties
expressive of one of the latter. For example, it of the artworkdependent upon the emotional
has been suggested thatartworks"symbolize," state and intentionsof its creator, with the well
"resemble," "imitate," "refer to," or "re- known unpalatableconsequence that any claim
present" emotions. aboutthe sadness, joyfulness, or melancholyof
Some of the ways of dealing with the mean- a work of art can be falsified by the discovery
ing of the sentence schemata will place con- that its creator was not sad, joyful, or melan-
straints upon the second enterprise and may choly and did not intend to express these
even completely determineit. I am inclined to emotions in producingthe work. A song cannot
believe that explaining the various relations be sad unless its composerwas sad and intended
which hold between works of art and emotions to express that sadness in her composition.
is a critical and psychological activity and not It would be only cosmetic to complicate the
properlyphilosophicalat all. At least it is not a account by allowing, as Wordsworthdoes, that
task which can be conducteda priori.Individual the poet may not have to be in the emotional
works will have to be examinedfor the features state when he createsbut merely be recollecting
upon which their expressiveness depends and I it in tranquillity,4or as Tolstoy says in Whatis
doubthow far this enterprisecan be generalized. Art?
For this reason the account which I give of the
meaningof the sentence schematawill be inde- and it is also art if a man feels, or imagines to himself
pendentof this secondpart. feelings of delight, gladness, sorrow, despair, courage
I believe that the aesthetic use of emotion or despondency, and the transitionfrom one to another
words as exemplified in the sentence schemata of these feelings and expresses them.5
(1-4) above, is a paronymousor extended use of
the words. I understandparonymy along the A group of counter examples should be
same lines as Austin's version of Aristotle. enough to show that the possession of expres-
sive qualities cannot be made logically depen-
A very simple case indeed is often mentioned by dent upon the creator's intentions to express
Aristotle: the adjective "healthy": when I talk of a herself. Landscapesand seascapes are (usually)
healthy body and again of a healthy complexion, of
not intentionallyproducedby any human agent
healthy exercise: the word is not being used just
equivocally. Aristotle would say that it is being used at all and birds are animals which are only
"paronymously". In this case there is what we might doubtfullycapable of having intentions. More-
call a primarynuclear sense of "healthy": the sense in over, some works of art may acquire their
which "healthy" is used of a healthy body: I call this expressive propertiesthrough accidents which
nuclear because it is "contained as a part" in the other
two senses which may be set out as "productive of happen long after the artist is done with them.
healthybodies" and "resultingfrom a healthybody".2 For example, suppose an artistpaints a picture
of a child in a summergarden. The paint which
There are three other paronymous explana- she uses is not of a very high quality and the
tions of the aestheticuse of emotion terms with blues, greens, and yellows fade. The painting
which I will deal before I presentmy own. The when first produced was joyful but afterwards
first is the romantic view; that is, sentences the joy is tinged with a wistful melancholy. If
which are instances of schemata(1-4) are to be an object may possess expressive properties
explained as meaning "This artworkis a prod- which are not logically, or even causally, tied to
uct of behaviorwhereby the artistexpressedher its being a productof expression, then it seems
E-ness." A product of behavior is not just that this account cannot be correct.
something caused by the behavior. It is that, in There are two simple alternativesto invoking
the creation of which, the artist was realizing the artist, to invoke the audience, or to say that
her intentionsto express her emotion. Romantic the expressive propertiesare entirelydependent
theorists would not allow that unintentionalor upon other properties, none of which involve
How Does Art Express Emotion? 177

any essential reference to audience or artist. e.g., pitch, timbre, or rhythm. This is the
On the first view the suggestion is that theory which is put forward,by Alan Tormeyin
instances of sentence schemata (1) and (2) The Concept of Expression7 and it seems to be
above mean "This artworkhas a tendency to the historical successor of such views as those
arouse E-ness in an attentiveaudience." Thus, of Aristotle and Susanne Langer. It is no
to say thata movie is sad is to say thatthe movie accident that all these theoriststake music to be
is saddening. However, it does not seem that a their prime example. It may just be possible to
claim that Arshile Gorky's painting Agony is see an analogy between the formal characteris-
expressive of anguish would be challenged by tics of music and the formal characteristicsof
the discovery that nobody who had attendedto behavioral expressions of emotion, but it is
it and recognizedthe anguishin it had ever been difficult to find any way for this analogy to be
inclined to feel anguish as a result. Its ability or generalized to cover the expressive power of
inability to evoke emotional responses does not color or of words.
seem to be partof the meaningof "This artwork
II.
is expressive of E-ness." However, this is not
to say thatevery tendencyto affect the minds of In this second section I shall explain what I
an audience is irrelevant.Any artworkwhich is take to be the correct paronymous account of
expressive of an emotion has a tendency to the meaning of sentence schemata (1-4), but
evoke that emotion in the imagination of an before I do so it would be prudentto explain the
attentiveaudience, but this evoking need not be nuclear primary sense of emotion words first.
emotionally loaded.6 This is the sense they have when they are
Some ascriptionsof emotion words to inani- applied to conscious entities, and above all, to
mate objects do fit this account. If I describe a people. It is people who are sad, anguished, and
bathroom or a wet garden as sad I may well melancholy. Very closely tied to this primary
mean that it makes me feel sad and there are use is the application of emotion words to the
some emotional adjectives for which this seems behavior of sad, anguished, and melancholy
to be the only reading. The most obvious people, that is, to the behavior which expresses
examples are "boring" and "annoying". If I the sadness, anguish, or melancholy. To de-
describe some object (whether a work of art or scribe behavior as sad, anguished, or melan-
not) as boring then I am almost certainly de- choly just is to identify it as an expression of
scribingit as somethingwhich has a tendencyto one of these. "Sad behavior" means "Behav-
make audiences feel bored. However, it seems ior which expresses sadness."
equally clear that some attributionsof emotions For behavior to express an emotion in the
to inanimateobjects are not attributionsof this nuclearsense of "express," the behaviormustbe
sort of dispositional property. Moreover if an of a type which is a "normal," "characteristic,"
inanimateobject is described as "expressive of or "typical" effect of the emotionin question. It
boredom" this is perfectly compatible with its is this intuitionwhich has given use to the view
being far from boring. Thus I conclude this thatthe behaviormust be conceptuallyconnected
accountwill not do for sentence schemata(2-4) with the emotionin question.
and for some uses of (1). If one accepts the account which David
The third and last account which I will Lewis gives for the meaning of psychological
consider before my own is one which takes terms,8 then typical causes and effects play a
sentence schemata(1-3) to mean "This artwork central role. The meaning of terms like
is analogous to an expression of E-ness." The "anger," "sadness," and "despair" is pro-
expressive properties of art are supervenient vided by a cluster of commonsense platitudes
upon resemblanceswhich hold between charac- aboutthe causal relationsin which emotions (as
teristics of the art work and characteristicsof they occur in combination with other mental
the naturalbehavioral expressions of emotion. states) stand to other mental states and to
This is an account which does not make any behavior. The bracketedclause is crucial since,
essential reference to either audience or artist. for example, we know that people's beliefs
The relevant characteristics of both behavior abouthow they can or should behave will affect
and art work will be formal intrinsicproperties, what behavior an emotion is likely to cause.
178 BARWELL

Emotion words will be defined in terms of the There are two obvious consequences of this
role emotions play within commonsense psy- view. Firstly, not all the behavioraleffects of an
chology. The defining platitudes need not be emotion will count as expressions of that emo-
confined to a set of statementsabout the emo- tion. It might be the case thatalmost any kind of
tion. They may, and perhaps must, include behavior can be caused by an emotion given a
demonstrations:it will be analyticallytrue of a suitable psychological and social context, but
certainemotion that there is a range of kinds of which of these will count as expressions will
behavior which it is believed to cause, but it depend upon the theory invoked. Atypical and
need not be the case that these kinds be exactly bizarrebehavioraleffects of an emotion count
specifiable in words. We can recognize a range as expressions only if a story can be told which
of facial and verbal expressions, gestures of shows them to belong to a type which is normal.
limbs and movements of the whole body which Secondly, whenever an item of behavior is an
we believe to be (typically) caused by anger, expression of emotion in this primarysense of
but, we may have no capacity to describe these "expression," the person performing the be-
behaviorsin words. For example, tensing facial havior has the emotion in question. For exam-
muscles, avowals of rage, shouting, and shak- ple, if his waving arms and distorted face are
ing fists are all characteristicconsequences of expressions of Peter's anxiety about his spoiled
anger. I have included avowals since I do not dessert then Peter must feel anxious about his
wish to suggest that it is only spontaneous dessert's spoiling. This is what Hospers calls
expressions which lie within the analyticrange. "the biographicalcommitment."9
To tell someone intentionally and deliberately It is not a consequenceof this view thata type
that it is both inconsiderateand ill-manneredto of behavior be the normal effect of only one
keep people waiting is a "normal" effect of emotion. Crying might be of a kind which is a
indignationabout unpunctuality. normaleffect of joy, sadness, and despair.
How does this relate to the question of When "express" is being used in its nuclear
whether behavior expresses emotion in the nu- sense of behavior all these sentence schemata
clear sense of "express"? I am maintainingthat are more or less synonymous:
this sense requiresthe behavior to be a typical (5) "This behavior is E"
or characteristiceffect and this can only be (6) "This behavior is expressive of E-ness"
sustained within some theory of what causes (7) "This behavior expresses E-ness"
what. Unless there is widespread error the (8) "This behavior is an expression of
analytic range of behavior (i.e., those which in E-ness"
common sense psychology featureas the char- Even though I have given only a sketchy
acteristicrange)and the rangeattributedto it by outline of the primarysense it should be easy to
some more self-conscious scientific theory will see a connection with what is often called
largely coincide. They will probablynot coin- another sense of "express," where it means
cide exactly and this is why we can discover "reveal." Behavior which expresses sadness in
new "expressions" of old and familiar emo- the primary sense is behavior which reveals
tions. It is also possible for the theories of sadness. At the very least the fact that the
individuals to deviate from the norm set by the performeris sad should be revealed whenever
analytic range and if an individualis gifted she someone's behavior is identified as sad. Very
can get others to share her opinions. This may often more than that will be revealed.
well be one of the characteristic skills of a Hospers notices this "reveal" sense of
novelist or playwright. "express" but only to dismiss it. He and
If somethinglike this account is correctthen, Dewey think that it is appropriatelyused in a
for an item of behavior to be an expression of judgment upon a spontaneous expression (a
E-ness, it must be mere "spewing forth" as Dewey would say)
a) caused by E-ness, and and what is revealed is no more than the
b) occupy a role within a theory which performer'semotional state.
shows it to be of a kind which is charac-
teristically caused by E-ness (given the We may say of the person who is raging that he is
right psychological and social context). expressing rage. In Dewey's sense . . . this is false,
How Does Art Express Emotion? 179

since he is merely giving vent to rage, not expressing it; a smile which is in fact an expression of secret
but to us as observers his actions may be expressive of
delight might be better suited to express polite
rage in the sense we are now considering; namely that
they reveal it.'0 skepticism. The same tight little smile is ana-
lytically connected to both secret delight and
polite skepticism and in some context it would
Hospers then remarksbriefly "Whetherthis be taken to express the latter. It would be
'reveal' sense of 'express' is much used of artis appropriateto advise someone of this-"'Don't
doubtful." smile like that, unless you want her to think that
I will argue that this "reveal" sense of you don't believe what she says!" The gruff
"express" is one which provides a stepping mannerin which an old man talks to a child may
stone to an understandingof the extended aes- be the only way in which he can express his
thetic sense. I will explain this use as it applies tendernessfor the child, but it may mask rather
to behavior before I show how it applies to than reveal the tenderness. He may be tender,
works of art and also to objects which are not his behavior may be an expression (in the
human artifacts. primarysense) of tenderness,but it is not tender
There are times when we describe behavior (in the extended sense).
as sad and we are not identifying it as an Sometimes when the adjective "expressive"
expression of sadness. Rather we are asserting is being used on its own the behavior is being
that the behaviorin question is well suited to be assessed in just the way I am describing, that is,
an expression of sadness. We may not have any for its suitability to get an audience to under-
particularperson's sadness in mind, but we are stand an emotion. For example, I may ask
assessing the gesture or the remarkin terms of someone how he felt aboutan exam and in reply
some standard(s)which we thinkexpressionsof he may make an "expressive" gesture. The
emotion should meet. That there should be any gesture is expressive because it is one well
standardsat all may be surprisingto some, but suited to getting an audience to understandjust
we say that some people are betterat expressing how he felt about the exam.
their emotions than others and we need not just It should be clear now that I am claiming that
mean that some people are more uninhibited sentence schemata (5-8) are sometimes used to
about doing so than others. For example, we mean
can assess the way people express their emo-
tions according to how easily it enables others "This behavior is well suited to be an expression of
to understand how the person feels, that is, how E-ness"
easily it reveals sadness. This is not the only
standardwe might use to judge some expres- One of the most importantcharacteristicsof
sions as "more expressive" than others, but it any statementmade using the sentence schema
is one we can and do use. I shall use this with this sense is that there is no biographical
standardin the discussion which follows-the commitment. In the examples I have discussed
assessment of a behavior in terms of its suita- so far this is not clear, because they have all
bility to be an expression of an emotion will be been examples of behavior which is expressing
made relative to the goal of getting an audience its performer'semotion, so when they are being
to recognize and understandhow one feels. assessed for theirsuitabilityto reveal emotion it
An example might be provided by a woman is naturalto suppose that it is the performer's
who habituallyexpresses her anger by weeding we have in mind. However, a gesture can be
her garden. She works vigorously and energeti- assessed for its suitabilityto reveal despair and
cally, tackling intransigentweeds with determi- even producedas an instance of a type suitable
nation and allowing nothing to disturb her as for revealing despair without its being the case
she uproots them. Because it is difficult to see that the person who gestures is in despair. This
the anger in her behavior, it would be difficult is very importantfor understandinghow this
for someone else to identify the behavior as an aesthetic use can apply to works of art and
expression of anger, and this would be a reason landscapes.
to say that her behavioris not expressive in this We can say of a face that it has a very sad
extended sense. To take some furtherexamples, expression or it is a sad face and there need be
180 BARWELL

no implication that its owner is sad. We can the expressive qualities of faces, facial expres-
assess the face and its expressionas being suited sions, or gestures, I was able to make use of
to reveal sadness independentlyof whether we them for my own expressive purposes. This is
think it is revealing its owner's sadness. exactly what is done with works of art and is
Once we have noticed the sadness in the face probablyone reason why expressiveness in art
and thus its suitability to express sadness it is is considered to be a value. It allows us to
open to us to use the face for our own expres- extend the range of our expressive powers
sive purposes. This point will be crucial when beyond those which we find within our own
we are considering art. Here it is sufficient to resources. If I want to express a feeling which
notice thatif I am asked how I feel and I feel sad defies my powers of description but which is
I can point to the sad face and say "That sombre, serene, and mystical, I might find that
expresses how I feel!" I can do this with a face Mark Rothko's huge abstractsin the Tate Gal-
in a paintingjust as easily as with a real face. lery perfectly capturethat feeling.
My face may not be able to assume just that So far most of the ways I have discussed for
expression, or I may not want it to, so I avail works of art or behavior to be suited to reveal
myself of this other in orderto get my audience emotion have been ways based upon ease and
to understandhow I feel. simplicity in identifying the emotion in ques-
All that is needed to understandthis extended tion. But this is perhaps the least important
use as applied to works of art is the re- standardfor art. I said in the beginning of this
introductionof the idea of a productof expres- articlethatemotions can be confused, complex,
sion. A product of expression is that in the ambiguous, or have phenomenal qualities
creation of which somebody was intentionally which are intimately bound up with the nature
expressing an emotion. A productof expression of their intentional objects. Anything which
may be nothing over and above the behavior could be well suited to adequatelyreveal a state
itself (a dance, a mime, or an impassioned of this kind would have to be expressive of the
speech) or it may be something which can exist confusion, complexity, ambiguity, and unique-
independently of the behavior (a novel or a ness. This would undoubtedlymilitate against
painting). We saw that behavior can be judged ease of identification.This explains why we so
suitable to express independentlyof whether it often content ourselves with describing a work
is actually an expression of anyone's sadness. of art as "expressive." We do not know how to
Similarly, if something is assessed as well identify what it is expressive of and neither do
suited to be a product of expression then this we think it importantto do so.
assessment can be made independently of On the other hand, I do not think that this
whetheror not we believe that it was a product amountsto an argumentfor the essential intran-
of expression. For example, I may describe sitiveness of the term "expressive" when used
some deep slashes in the wall of a house as of artworks. It reflects a limitation in our
"angry marks" and mean therebythat they are powers of expression, not a new meaning of
well suited to be the productsof angrybehavior, "expressive."
althoughI may know that they were caused by
1 Roger Scruton,Art
moving furniture. Deep slashes of this kind and Imagination(Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1982), p. 30.
could easily have been producedto reveal to an 2 John Austin, "The Meaning of a Word"
in Philo-
audience how angry I feel about something and sophical Papers, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1961),
they would have revealed the intensity of my p. 71. Scruton also notices this quote from Austin, but
rage. In exactly the same way I may describe a dismisses the suggestion that the aesthetic use of emotion
play as angry. words is a paronymoususe. He discusses various unsatis-
I am suggesting that the sentence schemata factory accounts but nothing like the one I give in this
(1-4) are to be understoodas equivalent to the article. I claim that my account explains all the "facts"
following schema about the aesthetic use of emotion words and the terms
"expression" and "expressive" which he gives in chapters
"This artwork is well suited to be a product of an 14 and 15 of Art and Imagination.
3 I do not mean to imply that for the romantictheorist
expression of E-ness"
the artists' intentions are formed in anything but a very
We noticed earlierthat once I had recognized vague way prior to engaging in the artistic activity.
How Does Art Express Emotion? 181

Collingwood would be an example of this sort of theorist 5 Leo Tolstoy, What is Art?, trans. by Aylmer Maude
and it is plain that for him the priorartisticintentionmay be (Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 122.
merely to express whatever-I-feel (about y). It is in the 6 I am not sure that anyone now would be inclined to
deliberate realizing of this vague intention that the exact hold the simple affective theory that I have described. But
natureof the feeling is revealed historically, such a view was held by many theorists as
disparate as the eighteenth century Japanese philosopher,
The characteristicmarkof expression properis lucidity Norinaga, and the empathy theorist, Vernon Lee.
or intelligibility; a person who expresses something 7 Alan Tormey, The Concept of Expression (Princeton
thereby becomes conscious of what he is expressing; University Press, 1971).
and enables others to become conscious of it in himself 8David Lewis, "Psychophysical and Theoretical
and in them. Turningpale and stammeringis a natural Identification," Australasian Journal of Philosophy 50
accompanimentof fear. A person who in addition to (1972): 249-58. This view avoids the confusion involved in
being afraid also turns pale and stammers does not the Ryle/Strawson/Wittgensteinaccount in which the con-
therebybecome conscious of the precise quality of his
emotion. ceptual connection obtains between emotion and behavior
ratherthan between the concept of an emotion and kinds of
R.G. Collingwood, The Principles of Art, (Oxford behavior.
University Press, 1938), p. 122. This quotation is from a 9 John Hospers, "The Concept of Artistic Expression"
section entitled "Expressing Emotion and Betraying in Problems in Aesthetics, 2nd ed., ed. MorrisWeitz (New
Emotion." York, 1959), pp. 221-45.
4 William Wordsworth,Preface to Lyrical Ballads. 'O Hospers, p. 230.

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