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Single Idea 23923

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 6. The Sublime ]

Full Idea

Pure visual form transports me to an infinitely sublime state of mind.

Gist of Idea

Visual form can create a sublime mental state

Source

Clive Bell (Art [1913], I.I)

Book Ref

Bell,Clive: 'Art' [nk 2010], p.11


A Reaction

Unusual for anyone to use to term 'sublime' for works of art, and I suspect that Bell was the last to do so. Bell offers a quasi-religious role for art. I accept that being struck by something exceptionally good in art is a very distinctive experience.


The 18 ideas from Clive Bell

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