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Single Idea 23929

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 5. Natural Beauty ]

Full Idea

It is only when we cease to regard the objects in a landscape as means to anything that we can feel the landscape artistically.

Gist of Idea

We only see landscapes as artistic if we ignore their instrumental value

Source

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

Book Ref

Bell,Clive: 'Art' [nk 2010], p.29

A Reaction

This sounds as if only the exploitative attitude blocks the artistic view, but I would expect the scientific view (of an ecologist, for example) to do the same.

The 18 ideas from 'Art'

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]