The Aesthetic Pattern of Development
Stage Theory – Living in Art
During the 1970s, Abigail Housen conducted research on the way individuals perceive, interpret, classify, understand, reflect on, and relate to the phenomenon of art—but also how art, on a very real level, influenced the decision-making process and “visual thinking strategy” of the same individuals on a much more sublime and existential level, over the course of time.
She found that her subjects’ ability for artistic reflection and understanding matured and “unfolded” in a similar, systematic, and predictable manner, and that this sequence of growth proved to be universal—that is to say, not affected by her subjects’ widely differing cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Like her well-known predecessors (Piaget, Maslow, Kohlberg, and Graves, among others), she had discovered a similar stage-growth pattern of development, specifically in the field of psychology concerned with artistic thinking, mapping, and perception.
The tests and interviews that generated the raw material for this research were conducted by having her subjects “think out loud” in a stream-of-consciousness manner when exposed to a wide array of different works of art. Each word, idea, pause, comparison, and observation was transcribed and analyzed almost as one would analyze the results of a Rorschach test.
In the 1970s, Housen’s research demonstrated that viewers understand works of art in predictable patterns called stages. She found that when viewers were asked to talk in a stream-of-consciousness monologue about an image, every idea and association revealed which stage they were operating from. Each aesthetic stage is characterized by a knowable set of interrelated attributes.
Each stage has its own particular, even idiosyncratic, way of making sense of the image.
In ensuing studies, Housen, with colleague Karin DeSantis, demonstrated that if viewers were exposed to a carefully sequenced series of VTS materials and artworks, their ways of interpreting images changed in a predictable manner. Moreover, growth in critical and creative thinking accompanied growth in aesthetic thought. In other words, in the course of VTS lessons, students develop skills not typically associated with art.
Equally interesting was that these findings were consistent across a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
1. Accountive
2. Constructive
3. Classifying
4. Interpretative
5. Recreative
Stage 1: Accountive — FACET 62
Accountive viewers are storytellers. Using their senses, memories, and personal associations, they make concrete observations about a work of art that are woven into a narrative. Here, judgments are based on what is known and what is liked. Emotions color viewers’ comments as they seem to enter the work of art and become part of its unfolding narrative.
“Lines, ovals, squares?” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
At times, the viewer makes observations and associations that appear idiosyncratic and imaginative:
“[A] giraffe’s back… a dog’s face.” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
Likewise, the viewer may incorporate people and objects into an idiosyncratic narrative:
“I see two ladies, holding each other.” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
“It seems to me he’s going home now and he can’t find his clothes.” (Cézanne, Bather)
Judgments are based on what the viewer knows and likes:
“The wallpaper is beautiful.” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
Emotions color the comments, as the viewer animates the image with words and becomes part of an unfolding drama:
“Like he’s hurt [his arms] when he was swimming or like he was mad or something the way he was holding his arms.” (Cézanne, The Bather)
The viewer (the “storyteller”) and the image (“the story”) are one. The viewer engages in an imaginatively resourceful, autonomous, and aesthetic response.
Stage 2: Constructive — FACET 63
Constructive viewers set about building a framework for looking at works of art, using the most logical and accessible tools: their own perceptions, their knowledge of the natural world, and the values of their social, moral, and conventional world.
If the work does not look the way it is supposed to—if craft, skill, technique, hard work, utility, and function are not evident, or if the subject seems inappropriate—then these viewers judge the work to be weird, lacking, or of no value. Their sense of what is realistic is the standard often applied to determine value. As emotions begin to go underground, these viewers begin to distance themselves from the work of art.
Observations have a concrete, known reference point:
“And they have five fingers, just like us.” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
If the tree is orange instead of brown, or if the subject seems inappropriate (for example, if themes of motherhood are transposed into themes about sexuality), the viewer judges the work to be “weird” or lacking in value:
“The hair on the first person is blond and it is true, but there is no such thing as a purple face.” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
As this viewer strives to map what he sees onto what he knows from his own conventions, values, and beliefs, his observations and associations become more linked and detailed. The viewer looks carefully and puzzles. An interest in the artist’s intentions develops:
“The person has chosen, instead of using circles for the background he used lots of diamonds.” (Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror)
Stage 3: Classifying — FACET 64
Classifying viewers adopt the analytical and critical stance of the art historian. They want to identify the work as to place, school, style, time, and provenance. They decode the work using their library of facts and figures, which they are ready and eager to expand. This viewer believes that properly categorized, the work of art’s meaning and message can be explained and rationalized.
Studying the conventions and canons of art history, the viewer wants to know all that can be known about the artist’s life and times. Her interests range from when and where an artist lived to how the work is viewed in the panoply of artists.
“I guess how much this resembles primitive art in a sense because the figures are flat and representational, and yet they’re nudes which were sort of an 18th century, 19th century preoccupation and yet [it] foreshadows modern art.” (Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon)
The viewer searches the surface of the canvas for clues, using his library of facts, which he is eager to expand. His chain of information becomes increasingly complex and multilayered:
“It seems to me that this is one of a number of Picassos that really is very indicative of, of two of his styles that are blending—this sort of monumental style of female drawing and the later Cubist style which you see entering into it.” (Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon)
Stage 4: Interpretive — FACET 65
Interpretive viewers seek a personal encounter with a work of art. Exploring the work, letting its meaning slowly unfold, they appreciate subtleties of line, shape, and color. Now critical skills are put in the service of feelings and intuitions as these viewers let the underlying meanings of the work—what it symbolizes—emerge. Each new encounter with a work of art presents a chance for new comparisons, insights, and experiences. Knowing that the work of art’s identity and value are subject to reinterpretation, these viewers see their own processes as subject to chance and change.
Stage IV viewers seek an encounter that is interactive and spontaneous:
“I don’t think that [drawing the ideal human form] was what he really had in mind as being that important, so maybe he de-emphasized some of the features, abstracted more because he was looking for us to look at other things – she does seem to be having some trouble with her reach, closing that circle, so that adds a little stress to the picture, that’s nice, it gives you so much to think about.” (Matisse, Dance)
Exploring the canvas, the viewer unwraps methods and processes in a new way. She discovers new themes in a familiar composition and distinguishes subtle comparisons and contradictions:
“It also reminds me of, I mean, I can imagine like the Suffragettes of the time just thinking this painting was so terrific. I don’t know, this is just an assumption of mine, but I think they would really like take it in and want it to be theirs as well, like the strength, the unity of women, sort of helping and nurturing each other in a way, sort of leading each other on a path.” (Matisse, Dance)
Critical skills are put in service of feelings and intuitions, as the viewer lets the meaning of the work—its symbols—emerge, and with each new “A-ha” comes a new engagement:
“And it’s not perfect, there’s like a humanity in this piece that speaks very clearly because of that irregularity in the line and the size, the proportion of each, which I’m sure means other things as well but really speak to me.” (Matisse, Dance)
Stage 5: Re-Creative — FACET 66
Re-Creative viewers, having a long history of viewing and reflecting on works of art, now willingly suspend disbelief. A familiar painting is like an old friend—known intimately yet full of surprise, deserving attention on a daily level but also existing on an elevated plane. As in all important friendships, time is a key ingredient, allowing Stage 5 viewers to know the ecology of a work—its time, its history, its questions, its travels, its intricacies.
Drawing on their own history with one work in particular, and with viewing in general, these viewers combine personal contemplation with views that broadly encompass universal concerns. Here, memory infuses the landscape of the painting, intricately combining the personal and the universal.
At Stage V, Re-Creative viewers, having established a long history of viewing and reflecting on art, now willingly suspend belief, as described by Coleridge (1983). The work of art is not just paper and paint. The viewer sees the object as semblant, real, and animated with a life of its own.
“The more I look at the painting, the more I have this sense of the sexuality as being a kind of pressure that pushes away from the canvas but in some ways is tightly held by the canvas itself.” (Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon)
The viewer begins an imaginative contemplation of the work (Baldwin, 1975). Transcending prior knowledge and experience, the viewer gives himself permission to encounter the artwork with a childlike openness. A trained eye, critical stance, and responsive attitude are his lenses as the multifaceted experience of the artwork guides his viewing.
A familiar painting is like an old friend, known intimately yet full of surprise, deserving attention on a daily level but also existing on a more elevated plane:
“I think just the freshness of it just keeps coming through continuously even though it’s quite an old painting at this point—it still seems very new to me.” (Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon)
Drawing on their own history with the work in particular, and with viewing in general, these viewers combine a more personal, playful contemplation with one more broadly encompassing and reflecting universal concerns. As with important friendships, time is a key ingredient, allowing the Stage V viewer to closely know the biography of the work—its history, its questions, its intricacies, and its ecology. Here, memory infuses the landscape of the painting, intricately combining the personal and the universal.
“There are preliminary drawings for this painting which incorporated a sailor and a doctor, I believe, standing to the side and pulling back a curtain and seeing the interior of a whorehouse, and the idea that Picasso eliminated those male figures and just presented the painting directly to the viewer, almost asking the viewer to be in that position seemed to be a very interesting change in the thinking about art.” (Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon)