Full Idea
When we strip things of all associations and significance, what is left is 'the thing in itself', or 'ultimate reality'. …Artists can express an emotion felt for reality through line and colour. …So through 'significant form' we sense ultimate reality.
Gist of Idea
Maybe significant form gives us a feeling for ultimate reality
Source
Clive Bell (Art [1913], I.III)
Book Reference
Bell,Clive: 'Art' [nk 2010], p.20
A Reaction
[compressed] The thing in itself is a Kantian idea. He offers this as a speculation, rather than a fact. Maybe quantum physics gets us closer to the thing in itself? Bell knows that his faith in significant form needs more justification than an emotion.