What Is the Point of Evaluating Art? | Eileen John (Warwick)

What Is the Point of Evaluating Art?

Eileen John (Warwick)

What are we trying to do when we reach an evaluative judgement of an artwork? It may seem fairly obvious: we want to figure out how good a work is, so that we can give it proper attention and respect (or neglect). We want to do appreciative justice to it, with the evaluative judgement summing up what the work has achieved. One problem with this rough idea is that the evaluation may come too late in the process. Do we have to give a work proper attention first, doing appreciative justice to it, in order to reach an evaluation? Maybe the evaluative result is a kind of icing on the cake of appreciation, but not particularly functional. However, the evaluative result can also guide us in making future choices and recommendations to others, and then the temporal order makes sense, the judgement coming after appreciative attention but in time to be a guide. The evaluation can support the rationality of my future art behaviour. In thinking about this role for evaluation, I will discuss some examples of critical response to art that cast the evaluative judgement in a less clear light. Choices and recommendations can sensibly prioritise less successful works and can rest on deep evaluative uncertainty. Our interest in critical response is often not in the evaluative summation. But maybe people have an unshakeable interest in evaluative ranking? I will try to acknowledge the significance of the desire to know which artworks are best, while also aiming to demote the significance of the evaluative judgement.

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