Cognition, emphasis, and the viewer’s experience of fine art

Abstract

Art theory has consistently emphasised the importance of situational, cultural, institutional and historical factors in viewers’ experience of fine art. However, the link between this heavily context-dependent interpretation and the workings of the mind is often left unexamined. Drawing on recent developments in cognitive pragmatics, we here argue that fine art achieves its effects by prompting the use of cognitive processes that are more commonly employed in the interpretation of words and other stimuli presented in a communicative context, drawing an analogy between gallery framing and communicative emphasis. More generally, we situate and describe the Western fine art tradition as a phenomenon that is a consequence of both human biological heritage and of cultural norms, practices and institutions.