Aesthetics of Modern Art from the Perspective of Cognitive Neuroscience

Problem statement: 

Why do some casual art audiences question the aesthetics of some abstract works? What are the aesthetic criteria and indicators in modern art? Basically, the raison d’être and aesthetics of modern art are considered noteworthy topics in the philosophy of art. The growing body of research in cognitive neuroscience has provided a deeper insight into the neurological basis of visual perception and decision-making processes in the brain. This insight can lead to extensive applications in various theoretical and practical fields ranging from explaining the formation of aesthetic experiences to cognitive design.

This paper focuses analytically on the aesthetic criteria of modern art based on neuroscience, interprets the most important and relevant empirical studies, and explains their relations to modern art. It also presents an aesthetic analysis of modern art based on the principles of neuroaesthetics.

A descriptive-analytical approach was employed in this qualitative study. The discussion, findings, and results are based on the analysis and interpretation of results from empirical studies on neuroaesthetics.

This analysis of research findings indicated the effects of certain neuroaesthetic laws on the aesthetic experience of modern art. Based on the visual processing mechanism in the brain, these laws are in closer links with the gene-based route of aesthetic perception. Apparently, the aesthetic experiences of abstract artworks are mostly the results of concepts constructed by the syntactic reasoning brain system akin to a semantic label on modern artwork. The intertwined two routes of instinctive gene-based aesthetics and the syntactic reasoning brain system have a two-sided dialectic interaction in the process of aesthetic perception. The analytic results indicated that the second route, which is mostly affected by culture and education, had a greater impact on the aesthetic judgment of modern art.