QUESTIONS
What is art ?
Leo Tolstoy asked the question, and
in 1898 his remarkable book with
that title gave his reply.
He underlined the need for art to
communicate what the artist has
felt:
Art is a human activity consisting
in this, that one man consciously
by means of certain external signs,
hands on to others feelings he has
lived through, and that others
are infected by these feelings and
also experience them.
Art is not, as the
metaphysicians say, the manifestation of
some Idea of beauty or God; it
is not, as the aesthetic
physiologists say, a game in which
man lets off his excess of
stored-up energy; it is not the
expression of man's emotions by
external signs; it is not the
production of pleasing objects;
and, above all, it is not
pleasure but it is a means of
union among men joining them together
in the same feelings, and
indispensable for the life and
progress towards wellbeing of individuals
and humanity.
There are many more definitions of
art besides Tolstoy's own and those
which he denounced.
For the purposes of this book,
just two assertions will have to
content us: first, some works
have been intended by their makers
to be seen as art; second,
there is a consensus today that
other works are to be described as
art.
...