Art as Experience

For Dewey, an aesthetic experience is an ordinary experience that is intensified and carried through to consummation. Unlike routine or fragmentary activity, it has a clear rhythm of tension and release that ends in fulfillment. In such moments, the whole self—senses, emotions, and thoughts—works together. Works of art provide the clearest example of this kind of consummated experience. However, Dewey says that it also appears in everyday life, such as finishing a meal, project, or conversation that feels complete and satisfying.

According to Dewey, art is not a material product but an experience. A painting or poem becomes a work of art only when a perceiver actively engages with it, completing the rhythms of doing and undergoing. In this sense, art is the most powerful form of communication, as it transforms private meanings into shared cultural expression. Art both arises from, and reshapes, the life of a community.

Criticism, in Dewey’s terms, is judgment rooted in perception rather than in rules or authority. He distinguishes it from “judicial” criticism, which hands down verdicts of praise or blame, and from impressionistic responses that never move beyond personal reaction. Genuine criticism analyzes and discriminates the features of a work while also unifying them into a coherent appreciation of the whole.