Art Imitates Reality or Creates Its Own?

Extract

[...] In other words, it is not simply a matter of describing the play as a synthetic and artificial composition inspired by reality, but of showing through this metaphor the properly elusive, dense, and discontinuous nature of tangible reality. We can distinguish two movements in this excerpt. A first moment is devoted to describing the action, and more generally life, as they are presented on stage. Bergson emphasizes their composite, constructed nature, as well as the simplicity and order that govern their unfolding. [...]

[...] We will start by trying to understand in what sense art can be qualified as an imitation, before considering that imitation is not in art an end but a means in view of creation; finally we will see that this creation is rather what poses, than what imitates, a reality (and not the reality). Art, considered in its mimetic function, imitates reality in the sense that it is the production of a copy of what is perceived by the senses, experienced in reality. [...]

[...] It is undoubtedly in this sense that Panofski states that « the only difference that separates the works of art from the productions of nature comes from the fact that their form, before penetrating into matter, resides in the human soul » (Idea, p.35). We can extend this statement by considering that the residence of the form of the work in the spirit of its creator is also what separates the pictorial work of art from its simple reproduction. Perhaps art is not an imitation, but a creation. [...]

[...] From this analysis, we can conclude that imitation is not so much the end of art as the means by which an author creates, gives meaning to the sensible. However, if the mimetic character of the work of art is only a means to the creative end, the production of a sense, is it still imitation that is involved? It seems legitimate to wonder in a final moment whether one can really speak of imitation at the same time as one speaks of creation, since in art what is "imitated" from reality is in reality only a pretext for grasping a meaning, which is not imitation. [...]

[...] Dissertation - To what extent can one argue that art imitates reality? Realism is an artistic movement of the 19th century characterized by its very raw way of representing the world and society. A realistic work 'imitates' reality in the sense that, despite its fictional nature, the characters and the world depicted in it are presented with a concern for plausibility and precision, taken to the highest point. Two difficulties can be raised regarding this mimetic character of realistic art. [...]