CONTENTS
Preface ix
SOME OVERALL VIEWS 1
Herbert Read, A Definition of Art 4
Bernard Berenson, The Aesthetic Moment 8
William H. Bossart, Form and Meaning in the Visual Arts 8
Bertram Jessup, What Is Great Art? 21
P. A. Michelis, Aesthetic Distance and the Charm of Contemporary Art 30
C. J. Ducasse, Art and the Language of the Emotions 47
Monroe C. Beardsley, On the Creation of Art 53
THE DANCE 73
Susanne K. Langer, The Dynamic Image: Some Philosophical Reflections on Dance 76
Selma Jeanne Cohen, A Prolegomenon to an Aesthetics of Dance 82
Morris Weitz, Purism and the Dance 93
LITERATURE 95
George Santayana, The Elements and Function of Poetry 98
Wayne Shumaker, The Cognitive Value of Literature 117
A. Richards, Poetry and Beliefs 131
Eric Capon, Theater and Reality 140
Hugh Kenner, The Counterfeiters 148
MUSIC 161
Aaron Copland, The Creative Process in Music 164
Eduard Hanslick, The Effects of Music 170
Susanne K. Langer, On Significance in Music 182
VISUAL ARTS: PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 213
John Hospers, Meaning in Painting 216
F. David Martin, On Enjoying Decadence 231
Fanchon Frohlich, Aesthetic Paradoxes of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art 236
Etienne Gilson, Aesthetic Existence 244
Clement Greenberg, The New Sculpture 256
ARCHITECTURE 261
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architecture Is Abstract 264
Lewis Mumford, Symbol and Function in Architecture 265
Eduardo Torroja, Notes on Structural Expression 279
Albert Bush-Brown, How a Building May Fail to Become Architecture 285
FILM 287
Siegfried Kracauer, The Issue of Art 290
Rudolf Arnheim, Art Today and the Film 291
Michael Roemer, The Surfaces of Reality 297
CONTRIBUTORS 309
SELECTED READINGS 311
AESTHETICS AND THE ARTS
New York, McGraw-Hill, 1968
This book of essays explores the problems of contemporary aesthetics as they relate to specific art forms. It is not for the advanced student or the philosopher, but for the non-specialist interested in all the arts, and concerned with developing an approach via aesthetics that can give us a greater enjoyment and access to these arts.
These essays have been chosen to provide basic insights into the nature and limitations of specific art forms, such as the dance, music, painting and sculpture, literature, architecture and the modern film.