Practice question · Put in order
Arrange the stages by which a work's meaning gets fixed in practice, in the order a viewer meets them.
- The account given afterwards in a text or a conversation
- The context the work is encountered in, before anything is looked at
- What the viewer already knows and brings to it
- The work itself, looked at
- The title and the wall label
Hints
- The room is read before the picture is.
- The written account usually arrives last and changes what has already been seen.
Show the answer
- The context the work is encountered in, before anything is looked at
- The title and the wall label
- The work itself, looked at
- What the viewer already knows and brings to it
- The account given afterwards in a text or a conversation
Why
The ordering is uncomfortable because the painting is third. By the time a viewer looks, the room and the label have already narrowed the field, which is why artists who ignore titles and installation are handing away two of the five stages to whoever installs the show.
Practise Meanings, and Who Decides Them
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