But Is It Art? Toward a Critical, Ethnographic Analysis of Art Openings

• In Event: 508 - Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Theory and Praxis

Abstract

Is taste determined by habitus and class position or can people grow and develop in the sense of Friedrich Schiller’s On the Aesthetic Education of Man? This study investigates the problem of the fluidity or rigidity of taste by presenting our ethnographic research on “vernissages” [visual art openings]. To do so, we question whether visual art openings allow for the growth of the aesthetic and the development of specialized senses, which is known as the “sensorium,” as posited by Fredric Jameson. The point of this project is to be able to show that the pleasure of sensory appreciation cannot be reduced to the viewer’s status distinction and taste. Our study examines art openings in San Antonio, Texas and uses direct observation as well as photographs and video media to analyze the short but intense effervescent moments of social life in the art world. We are interested in elements relating to the first contact with the work, looking at verbal and non-verbal interactions, and at recurrent forms of judgments of taste as well as of distaste. Of further interest are the ways people agree or disagree on the reception and interpretation of the artwork and at how a common feeling about the event, the artwork, or the artist emerges and gets stabilized. This research works toward a “thick description” of such events so as to provide a critical insight into the effervescent experiences of public art openings.

Authors

• Jeffrey A. Halley, University of Texas-San Antonio

• Jorge Candelario Gonzalez, University of Texas-San Antonio

• Kameron Cordero Cavazos, University of Texas-San Antonio