Gombrick On Art Criticism

Gombrich defends the notion of canon, which is used to judge the excellence. Under the intelligent atmosphere of confliction between Absolutism and Relativism, he objects to both of them, and he insists the objectivity and validity of canon. Following it, I will dwell on the answer to the standard of excellence from Gombrich.On the one hand, Gombrich refutes the extreme relativism in three different aspects. All that including radical subjectivism, style relativism, cultural relativism will lead to extreme relativism. Is there any objective standard? The extreme relativism think that there isn’t any objective standard. To object to it, Gombrich defend the objectivity of values of art, and make sure the objectivity of canon. And on the other hand, Gombrich also refutes to the absolute standard in the art. Is any fixed standard in art? Gombrich says no. He objects to any pure fixed standard beyond our culture and history and any absolute rule in the history. He think the fact is not ruled by any universality but diversity. The standard of art is rooted in the specific culture and tradition of artists’ creation thus also is diversity.We can’t begin with zero, the canon of art is belong to the basic fact of the life of knowledge and the precondition to art. Art has its own standard, which is determined by the tradition and institution of art. Artist creates depending on the tradition and institution and we can understand the canon and value of art by history. At the same time, The value of art is realized by the closely connection with other values in the society and the distinction from other values. The canon of art is not stay the same.it is produced by the tradition then change in tradition and blend in the new tradition.