DOI Artikel:
Kasperowicz, Ryszard; Porębski, Mieczysław [Bearb.]; Porębski, Mieczysław [Gefeierte Pers.]: Metoda jako gra.: Mieczysława Porębskiego metodologia badań nad sztuką
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23935#0055
METODA JAKO GRA. MIECZYSŁAWA PORĘBSKIEGO METODOLOGIA BADAŃ NAD SZTUKĄ
49
METHOD AS GAME. MIECZYSŁAW PORĘBSKI'S METHODOLOGY OF ART RESEARCH
Mieczysław Porębski was one of the most important Polish art historians of the twentieth century. An outstanding interpreter
of nineteenth and twentieth-century art, he also practiced art criticism in a créative way, and was an organiser of cultural activities - a
sympathetic observer of many developments in modern art. The methodology of art history occupies a spécial place in his scholarly
accomplishments. In contrast to many researchers, who dealt with history and its methods as a humanistic discipline, Porębski devel-
oped his own methodology of art research, which he formed under the strong influence of methods borrowed from information theory,
semiotics, anthropology and structural sociology. As the author of numerous methodological studies, later collected in a large volume
entitled Art and Information, he tried to construct a systematic approach to art, beginning with a semiotic (iconic) understanding of the
work, incorporated in the system of semiotic and social communication. One of Porçbski's main objectives was to discover a concept
of art as communication, which would allow for a comprehensive view of the story of art, with room for the particular role of moments
of structural breakthrough (the crises - the transgressions), modelled on the basis of the achievements of structural anthropology and
modem interprétations of myth and times of festivity, operating at différent levels in societies characterised by différent attitudes to
painting, which can nonetheless be encompassed in répétitive patterns and formulas.
In giving the work a three-layered structure, centred on the original idea of "morphisms", Porębski tried to capture the changing
functions of art within the framework of the variants of spécifie stylistic codes and communication Systems. At the same time, as a
methodologist, Porębski was well aware of the restrictions faced by information and semiotic théories when applied to artistic (more
generally, visual) images, which build symbolic Systems by expressing something and pointing at themselves. Porębski continued to
develop his methodology of art research, on the one hand fascinated by the possibilities of adding the rigours of accuracy to it, as is
the case with linguistic and semiotic studies, and on the other shaping his décisions under the strong spell of modernity, both on an
ideological as well as artistic level.
(translated by Katarzyna Pisarek)
49
METHOD AS GAME. MIECZYSŁAW PORĘBSKI'S METHODOLOGY OF ART RESEARCH
Mieczysław Porębski was one of the most important Polish art historians of the twentieth century. An outstanding interpreter
of nineteenth and twentieth-century art, he also practiced art criticism in a créative way, and was an organiser of cultural activities - a
sympathetic observer of many developments in modern art. The methodology of art history occupies a spécial place in his scholarly
accomplishments. In contrast to many researchers, who dealt with history and its methods as a humanistic discipline, Porębski devel-
oped his own methodology of art research, which he formed under the strong influence of methods borrowed from information theory,
semiotics, anthropology and structural sociology. As the author of numerous methodological studies, later collected in a large volume
entitled Art and Information, he tried to construct a systematic approach to art, beginning with a semiotic (iconic) understanding of the
work, incorporated in the system of semiotic and social communication. One of Porçbski's main objectives was to discover a concept
of art as communication, which would allow for a comprehensive view of the story of art, with room for the particular role of moments
of structural breakthrough (the crises - the transgressions), modelled on the basis of the achievements of structural anthropology and
modem interprétations of myth and times of festivity, operating at différent levels in societies characterised by différent attitudes to
painting, which can nonetheless be encompassed in répétitive patterns and formulas.
In giving the work a three-layered structure, centred on the original idea of "morphisms", Porębski tried to capture the changing
functions of art within the framework of the variants of spécifie stylistic codes and communication Systems. At the same time, as a
methodologist, Porębski was well aware of the restrictions faced by information and semiotic théories when applied to artistic (more
generally, visual) images, which build symbolic Systems by expressing something and pointing at themselves. Porębski continued to
develop his methodology of art research, on the one hand fascinated by the possibilities of adding the rigours of accuracy to it, as is
the case with linguistic and semiotic studies, and on the other shaping his décisions under the strong spell of modernity, both on an
ideological as well as artistic level.
(translated by Katarzyna Pisarek)