Evaluation of Artworks in Analytic Philosophy of Art

Evaluation is a fundamental part of art criticism. Contrasting interpretations and conflicting evaluations with regard to a single work of art had led some thinkers to believe that there is no objective ground for evaluation. On the other hand, integration of evaluation and interpretation may aggravate the situation, in favor of relativism. We will argue that not only objective evaluations are not out of reach in art criticism, but that objectivity is surmised in the practice of criticism and evaluation. We hold that it is possible to find solutions for some problems and objections proposed by the proponents of relativism in evaluation. This can be done by focusing on contextualization, the intention of the author, and the relation of artistic form to the choices of the artist. Along with the elucidation of these ideas, we try to illustrate them by an example taken from the recent Iranian cinema.