Problems of Art: Ten Philosophical Lectures.

LANGER, Suzanne.

Verlag: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1957

Beschreibung

Half title + TP + [v] = Dedication page + vii = Preface + viii = Contents + 1-184. Octavo. First UK Edition.Dedicated to Langer's lifelong friend, Helen Sewell (the illustrator of Langer's first book, The Cruise of the Little Dipper) and with a dust jacket that was designed by Sewell. Here she refines the common notion that a work of art expresses the feelings of the artist, arguing that the artist expresses "not his own actual feeling, but what he knows about human feeling." She added (as quoted in the New York Times) that "once he is in possession of a rich symbolism, that knowledge may actually exceed his entire personal experience." Although delivered to different audiences - dancers, music students, college students and learned societies - each with their own special interests, "yet the lectures when put together prove to have a common theme, dictated by those central concepts that direct every special inquiry. Art has many problems, and every problem has many facets. But the basic issues - what is created, what is expressed, what is experienced - underlie them all, and all special solutions are developments of these crucial answers. The single lecturers, therefore, may seem to be on many single subjects, but they are really somewhat arbitrary small spotlights turned on the same great topic, the nature of Art." (from the author's Preface)The ten lectures offered are:The Dynamic Image: Some Philosophical Reflections on DanceExpressivenessCreationLiving FormArtistic Perception and "Natural Light"Deceptive Analogies: Special and Real Relationships Among the ArtsImitation and Transformation in the ArtsPrinciples of Art and Creative DevicesThe Art Symbol and the Symbol in ArtPoetic CreationThere is also an 18-page Appendix reprinting "Abstraction in Science and Abstraction in Art." Langer notes that what is most compelling about works of art is often described, by critics and artists alike, with metaphors drawn from the realm of life and feeling. "Every artist," she observes, "finds 'life,' 'vitality,' or 'livingness' in a good work of art. He refers to the 'spirit' of a picture, not meaning the spirit in which it was painted, but its own quality; and his first task is to 'animate' his canvas. An unsuccessful work is 'dead.' Even a fairly good one may have 'dead spots.'" Similarly, in a musical composition "melodies move and harmonies grow and rhythms prevail, with the logic of an organic living structure." In music one hears, with apparent immediacy, "a flow of life, feeling, and emotion in audible passage." The virtual image created by the arrangement of tonal materials in music is a powerful illusion of movement that seems in some way to be charged with life and feeling. In Langer's theory a work of art formulates an idea of feeling, which she defines quite broadly as "inner life," "subjective reality," or "consciousness." "Feeling" for Langer is thus a generic term for conscious experiences, or what William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890) called "mental states at large, irrespective of their kind." Original publisher's textured red cloth with bright gilt lettering to the spine. The original publisher's dust jacket shows a few minor chips at and near the top of the spine. A lovely bright, tight and clean copy of this fascinating work by Langer. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 1425

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Problems of Art: Ten Philosophical Lectures.

Verlag: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

Erscheinungsdatum: 1957

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Schutzumschlag

Auflage: FIRST UK EDITION.