Mieke Bal (b. 1946, Netherlands)
Norman Bryson (b. 1949, UK)
Semiotics and Art History, 1991

For a while now, I’ve been looking for theoretical perspective that would address art from the audience perspective, paying special attention to their sensemaking. I had almost assumed that I would have to write one myself. But, sooner or later, one is likely to find what they are looking for. A number of most relevant works have been popping up on my reading list lately, and Bal & Bryson’s piece is a good example of those.

Without ever digging very deep into it, I saw semiotics as an interesting, relevant, but rather technical approach to meaning generation – and since my own interest is more in meanings themselves rather than it their mechanics, I was quite satisfied with a rather schematic overview of the field. However, Bal & Bryson has shown how it addresses – or even articulates – the perspective I am interested in most directly, approaching appreciation of art as semiosis. Here I find a variety of tools that “justify” my focus on the receiver, “normalise” polysemy of the works, leaves ample room for idiosyncratic readings and new meaning generation.

I also appreciate the grounded matter-of-fact style of Bal & Bryson who never get carried away in either ideological or normative excesses.

Yeah, who could have guessed that my interest for meaning generation and sensemaking could be related to semiosis?! 🤪