SUMMARY:
This paper explores the process of creating artwork, with a particular emphasis on the artist’s role in that process. The concept of the ‘donkey’s dilemma’ is used to illustrate the artist’s position when faced with the act of creation. Specifically, the artist must decide whether to adhere to the inherent principle of the artwork, ensuring that all stages of its creation are aligned with this internal logic, or to conform to an external principle, thereby adapting the artwork to fit preexisting frameworks. The inherent, inner principle guarantees a coherent relationship between the metaphysical essence of the artwork and its physical form, ensuring that this principle is clearly expressed in the final work. In contrast, the external principle represents external ideas, ideologies, or cultural contexts that assign value and meaning to objects considered art within a given context. The artist, like the donkey, must bear the burden of his choice, and the dilemma lies in deciding which burden to accept - a dilemma we argue is ultimately false. In either case, the artist remains inextricably bound to the moral and ethical consequences of his choice regarding both the artwork and the principle guiding its creation. Art created in accordance with an inner principle possesses intrinsic value - a valor derived from the work itself, grounded in its own internal logic. By contrast, art tied to an external principle lacks inherent value, as its worth depends on the value system the artist adopts. This paper further argues that such external value systems, including widely accepted aesthetic standards, are context-dependent and therefore relativistic. By contrast, the genuine disposition for an artwork to possess value resides in its ontology - that is, in its inner principle. Accordingly, the decision between an inner or external principle in the creative process is, fundamentally, a choice between authentic value – that is, the valor, and imposed perceptions of value shaped by societal constructs.
(Balkan Analytic Forum, BAF 2: Dispositions & Dispositions and Values, Belgrade, 2025. (In print))
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