What is Kunstwollen ?
Kunstwollen also known as “will to art” is a notion introduced by Alois Riegel in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Alois Riegel adopted the Hegelian concept of — universality, particularity, and individuality. Hegel and Kant’s indisputable contributions to the evolution of the concept of Kunstwollen are specifically highlighted for examination.
He embraced his age as a “natural scientific world view” and acknowledged his own creations as “scientific art from history.” The “technical-materialist”theory was inverted by him, who claimed that “desire” came before and dictated tools and procedures in a “continuous struggle with material.
Hegel’s Aesthetic impacted Riegel’s Kunstwollen base. Hegel’s influence on Riegl, particularly in the context of Kunstwollen as “will” and the higher spirit or concept that wills art into being, cannot be denied.
Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790) and his worldview was fundamental for Riegel and 19th century scholars. Kant originated the concept that art entails a “purposiveness without purpose” — that beauty is perceived as if it were created with a goal, despite the fact that it serves no practical use. His focus on the autonomy of aesthetic perception and the intrinsic value of art laid the groundwork for Riegl’s philosophy.
Kunstwollen exists if artist exists.
Liberal Arts and Mechanical arts:
The arts were “mechanical”, if they involved a physical effort, “liberal” if they behaved an intellectual one. The “liberals” included the so-called arts of the Trivio (grammar, rhetoric, logic, to which poetry was aggregated, and the arts of the Quadrivio (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music).
The arts as we know them had to gain autonomy from both the scientific realm of the “liberals” and the simply utilitarian, artisanal, and practical realm of the “mechanics” in order to arrive at the modern “art” notion. The first instance happened during the Renaissance, when the figurative artists asserted the “liberal” dignity of their work by portraying it as “intellectual,” a type of science, and on par with poetry, which had evolved from a basic grammar appendix to the most significant element of the Trivio. The “art as science” paradigm was already in trouble throughout the Mannerist era, and the connection between poetry and art was becoming increasingly apparent.
The creation of art, is a contest with nature with the aim of bringing to expression a harmonious worldview. — Alois Riegel
Riegel pursued studies in minor arts, applied arts, and decorative arts. According to him, we must also make reference to these items in order to comprehend how artists expanded representation. Fundamentally a robust and steady approach. According to Rigel, the creative will, or Kunstwollen, is the foundation of artistic production.
Throughout history, the issue has always been one of will rather than power. Intention is another definition of artistic will. The artist has an interiority and a desire to express one thing above another. One could make the mistake of interpreting works from the late antiquity/medieval period by applying standards that were not in line with the creative desires of the artists of that time.
The setting of the figures in space, which was important in antiquity, did not appeal to the artists of the Middle Ages (until the late 200s). They are impoverished painters who are unable to depict space; however, their will, or kunstwollen, enters the picture.
Sources:
https://thetheoryguy.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/alois-riegls-kunstwollen-influences-and-influenced/
“Metodologia della ricerca storica artistica” lesson notes
Art’s ‘Contest with Nature’: Darwin, Haeckel, and the Scientific Art History of Alois Riegl, Marsha Morton, Darwin and Aesthetic Theory, ed. Barbara Larson and Sabine, Fach, Ashgate, 2013
