Abstract
In interpretation of works of plastic art, we can find various types of ambiguity. I discriminate between potential ambiguity and overt ambiguity. If an element has more than one possibilities of interpretation and they are reduced to one in a text, the text has the potential ambiguity. But if they are not reduced in a text, the text has overt ambiguity. In a given text, potential ambiguities are those which have to be reduced. In this respect I dealt with the ambiguity of 'givenness'. Here 'givenness' means that a work gives us itself as something. I interpreted the C.S. Peirce's trichotomy of the sign in itself (namely qualisign, sinsign and legisign) as categories of 'givenness', and found that a work of plastic art had to be given to us under one of these categories. Therefore there are possibilities as to the way of a work to be given. It is this fundamental potential ambiguity that the recent modern plastic art should solve.
