Journal of Art Historiography (Dec 2015)
Art-matrix theory and cognitive distance: Farago, Preziosi, and Gell on art and enchantment
Abstract
Theories that treat art objects primarily as agents embedded in a causal nexus of agent–patient relationships, as opposed to studying them as expressions or symbols encoding meanings, tend to identify art’s agency with its power to enchant recipients. I focus on two such approaches, the art-matrix theory of Claire Farago and Donald Preziosi and the art-nexus theory of Alfred Gell. Their authors stress the potential of art to make its enchanting power the topic of our experience with it, that is, to disenchant its own enchantment. This raises the following question: If artworks are to be understood as agents enchanting their recipients, how can they become forces of disenchantment? I argue that the shift in perspective from perceiving art objects as indices of agency within a matrix/nexus to approaching them as possible means of gaining cognitive distance is inadequately addressed by both theories; this is due to features inherent to their respective theoretical outlooks.
