more from Richard Wollheim

Single Idea 20345

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 4. Art as Expression]

Full Idea

The view that a work of art expresses nothing if it can't be put into other words ...is reduced by the view that a work of art has no value if what it expresses or says can be put into (other) words.

Gist of Idea

Some say art must have verbalisable expression, and others say the opposite!

Source

Richard Wollheim (Art and Its Objects [1968], 49)

Book Reference

Wollheim,Richard: 'Art and Its Objects' [Penguin 1975], p.128


A Reaction

I prefer the second view. Poetry is what is lost in translation. Good art actually seems to evoke emotions which one virtually never feels in ordinary life. But how could that be possible? What are those emotions doing there?