That view

Question

Do both "this" and "that view" in the following text imply "the fact that Questions concerning what “art” means are relative to time and place"?

If so, I can not understand how the next sentence starting with "For..." explains it. Can you tell me your interpretation please?

Context:

Questions concerning what “art” means, in the double sense of what art is and what is art, are relative to time and place. This seems to be a truism today, but that view, too, is historically contingent. For in the unfolding of the history of art, one finds strong claims about universal meaning concerning what art is, and, in addition, what we call art today carries something of those earlier designations about its meaning. The same claims about the historical nature of the meaning of art can be applied to the meaning of the artist. Thinking of oneself as an artisan is different from thinking of oneself as an artist, and this difference affects the meaning attached to the practices involved in each.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

cattttDo both "this" and "that view" in the following text imply "the fact that Questions concerning what “art” means are relative to time and place"?

Yes.

cattttIf so, I can not understand how the next sentence starting with "For..." explains it. Can you tell me your interpretation please?

"Universal meaning" is not clear. I guess it is supposed to mean that the meaning is fixed and absolute.

Throughout history, thinking about art has depended on the era in which that thinking took place, on the overall climate of thought prevailing in the day, not to mention censorship. One of the aspects of that thinking is that very idea; we haven't always thought that the meaning of art is fluid, and in some eras the meaning of art was considered to be self-evident or ordained. The evidence for this (the writer's "for") lies in the archives, and it can also be found in the traces that remain in our present thinking.

That view

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