An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art

unattached. It has alocalhabitation...[Its significance] is a function of

what is in the actual scene in its interaction with what the beholder brings

with him.^76

A work of art must present a subject matter in such a way that the emotional

and attitudinal significance of it can be explored through interaction with

the work itself, as that work is achieved through the working of a medium.

In this sense, a work of art must be a representation. But this also suggests

the extent to which success in artistic representation, as opposed to ordinary

representation, is indissolubly wedded to both the explorative, formal

working of the medium and the achievement of expressiveness.

(^76) Dewey,Art as Experience, pp. 90–91, 87.
52 An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art