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Single Idea 20434

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 2. Art as Form ]

Full Idea

By 'form' Bell means the relations of lines, colours and shapes. Forms are 'significant' when the relationships of lines and so on move us aesthetically. If something is art it must have, to at least a minimum extent, significant form.

Gist of Idea

'Form' is visual relations, and it is 'significant' if it moves us aesthetically; art needs both

Source

report of Clive Bell (Art [1913], p.17) by Susan Feagin - Roger Fry and Clive Bell 3

Book Ref

'Key Thinkers in Aesthetics', ed/tr. Giovannelli,Alessandro [Continuum 2012], p.119

A Reaction

So art has two necessary conditions - that it move us aesthetically, and that it does so by means of its form. The obvious problem is to explain which forms are 'significant' without mentioning the aesthetic feeling they have to invoke.

The 18 ideas from Clive Bell

8115 Only artists can discern significant form; other people must look to art to find it [Bell,C, by Gardner]
23922 The word 'beauty' leads to confusion, because it denotes distinct emotions [Bell,C]
23921 Our feeling for natural beauty is different from the aesthetic emotion of art [Bell,C]
23923 Visual form can create a sublime mental state [Bell,C]
23925 Mere copies of pictures are not significant - unless the copies are very exact [Bell,C]
23926 Art is distinguished by its aesthetic emotion, which produces appropriate form [Bell,C]
23927 Aestheticism invites artist to create beauty, but with no indication of how to do it [Bell,C]
23928 Good art produces exaltation and detachment [Bell,C]
23924 Maybe significant form gives us a feeling for ultimate reality [Bell,C]
23929 We only see landscapes as artistic if we ignore their instrumental value [Bell,C]
23930 Religion sees infinite value in some things, and irrelevance in the rest [Bell,C]
23931 Significant form is the essence of art, which I believe expresses an emotion about reality [Bell,C]
23932 Art is the expression of an emotion for ultimate reality [Bell,C]
22691 Only artistic qualities matter in art, because they also have the highest moral value [Bell,C]
23933 Aesthetic contemplation is the best and most intense mental state [Bell,C]
23934 The only expression art could have is the emotion resulting from pure form [Bell,C]
23935 Aesthetic experience is an exaltation which increases the possibilities of life [Bell,C]
20434 'Form' is visual relations, and it is 'significant' if it moves us aesthetically; art needs both [Bell,C, by Feagin]