Full Idea
The first quality that we demand in our [artistic] sensations will be order, without which our sensations will be troubled and perplexed, and the other will be variety, without which they will not be fully stimulated.
Gist of Idea
Art needs a mixture of order and variety in its sensations
Source
Roger Fry (An Essay in Aesthetics [1909], p.32)
Book Reference
Fry,Roger: 'Vision and Design' [Penguin 1937], p.32
A Reaction
He makes good claims, but gives unconvincing reasons for them. Some of us rather like 'troubled and perplexed' sensations. And a very narrow range of sensations could still be highly stimulated. Is Fry a good aesthetician but a modest philosopher?