AESTHETICS AND THE ARTS

MCGRAW-HILL PUBLISHERS

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

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