The Theories Presented By Tolstoy And Bell

According to Tolstoy, the true purpose of art is connected to our abilities to feel emotion. “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling - this is the activity of art” (Tolstoy,66 ). Much like food is necessary for sustenance, art is necessary for our sympathetic capacities. In order for this form of communication to occur, the artist must have the capacity to express and transmit through his art, while the audience must have the capacity for sympathy in order to feel the artist’s expression. According to Tolstoy, simply transmitting an emotion is not enough to define art. A true work of art must be infectious to its audience and be able to express individual feelings lucidly and purposefully.

1. Plato and Tolstoy argued that art can be dangerous because audiences can identify with many of the characters portrayed in any specific work, and

Since the beginning of time, artists have labored extensively to find innovative ways to convey sentiment, passion, and feeling. Telling stories and trying to unlock the minds of people through different avenues of artistic labors. Art touches and affects people in unique ways; it can have special or unusual meaning on the person depending on how one views it. Artists’ rendering of their art is interpreted in numerous ways by others who view it unless it is explained by the artist on its meaning giving a clear example of what they are portraying. Two people looking at the same painting, sculpture, portrait, or photo may come to different views on the arts meaning even though they are looking

Art, by definition, is works created by artists: paintings, sculptures, etc., that are created to be beautiful or to express important ideas or feelings (Merriam-Webster).

For centuries, people’s aesthetic value has been influenced by Rome's perfectionism, so do I. I used to think that artworks that make people feel appreciated are just equivalent to visual appreciation and satisfaction. However, after observing the painting and researching sources of this pieces of art I realized that an excellent artwork needs to cover all aspect requirements. For instance, an excellent artwork needs to contain a high operation of art skills as well as art knowledge in order to persuade audience. In addition, to qualify as a great artwork it has to create a substantial amount of activity in the audience’s mind or heart. When I look at an artwork I always try to figure out what is the artwork's message or what the artist is trying to communicate, to convey. Overall, I think a good artwork needs include some of the elements and principles of the language of art as well as the structure they give to be able to successfully communicate an idea.

In the early eighteenth-century, a letter from Peter the Great’s court was sent to Russian publishers declaring that all material must be printed with the intention to maintain “The glory of the great sovereign and his tsardom and for the general usefulness and profit of the nation” (The Cambridge History of Russia). The effects of this proclamation reverberated throughout Russia for centuries and laid the foundation for future rulers such as Catherine the Great and later Alexander III to fortify the position of the censor. The strengthening of the Russian censor, consequently, manipulated and stifled the country’s most influential wordsmiths. No Russian writer was safe from the censor, not even a master like Leo Tolstoy. Specifically, in

Most artists express themselves through their work: their choices of creative projects, their development of projects, and the individual inner artist as an underlying basis for their work. All artists create with pure devotion to esthetically pleasing an audience, a client, a customer or ultimately aesthetic pleasure for a viewer or listener.

Abstract Expressionism began in the 1940s and the 1950s in New York after World War II from the ideas of Surrealism about art that looks to examining the unconscious mind, and the feelings people hold that makes us all humans. Through the discussion of Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock, I will define Abstract Expression and why this work is part of this movement. Then, through the discussion of Canyon by Robert Rauschenberg, Target with Plaster Casts by Jasper Johns, and Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol, I will explain Assemblage and Pop Art and why each of these works belong to those movements.

Just like everything else in life, art has its critics. Art criticism is the expression used to describe the act of making selective judgments, both positive and negative, about an art piece. Just as art is so diversely expressed and interpreted, those who critique it also have various methods and use various standards when criticizing an art piece. There are many theories critics use to evaluate art but there are three basic theories most commonly put to use by professionals. The three basic theories are: formal theories, contextual theories, and expressive theories. Formal theories focus on the formalities of art. Critics using formal theories pay close attention to the making of a piece, how each section of the art piece works to form a visual experience that may or may not attract the attention of those who come across it. Formalists’ attention is centered on the formal organization rather than the themes, which they deem irrelevant. Contextualists, on the other hand, value the theme and its relevance to the times in which the artwork was created. The contextual theories deal with the context in which an art piece is used; what it symbolizes concerning the culture and values of the environment. Lastly, there are the expressive theories. Expressionists are more concerned with the artist and the personal expression put into the work. Also, because art is a method of communication, expressive theories

For Tolstoy, the value of art comes from the function art serves in society and in human historical development. Art appears in everything that lives and should have the force to bring people together as a community. For him expressionism in art is a means of communication, in such as a language. Therefore, language can be described as a form of art under the theory of expressionism. Speech transmits the thoughts and experiences of mankind, serving as a means of expression among them; art also acts in a similar manner by sharing emotions. If people could not be affected by art, we would still be in the era of savagery. Referring back to the author of our book, John Fisher, emotional communication is essential to art. Fisher also states that too much harnessed emotion will tend to lower the value of art.

For the purpose of this research I am defining arts as a form of expressing ones

With this method of formalism we compare form and style, analyzing only the purely visual aspects such as color, line, shape and texture of an object or artwork. Two formalist individuals worth mentioning are Immanuel Kant and Clive Bell. Kant who teaches us the importance of the disinterested viewer, and Bell who also explains this. Bell states in his article The Aesthetic Hypothesis that "Our practical interests, with their correlative pleasures and pains, are blended, become confused now and then, and disquiet our aesthetic interest, but never become united with it”. So even though ancient Egyptian art has always stood out to me personally, we cannot let our personal interests or emotions effect the way we analyze the works produced from ancient Egypt.

Leo Tolstoy was an author, anarchist, critic, pioneer, visionary, and a world changer. He wrote many great novels and various other literary works in his time, but that only scratches the surface of how and what he did to change the world. Leo Tolstoy changed the world by starting schools which allowed peasants to get an education, influencing leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and changed the world through his writings.

Debate over the definition of art has developed for hundreds, if not thousands of years. People have spent millions of dollars and given years of their lives to the craft called art. However, there has not been an agreement on what the definition of art is because it tends to be a very vague concept incorporating many cultures and ideas. It has proven itself to be an effective tool in the human expression over the years preserving deep and personal feelings along with history. Art can be defined as the creation of beauty through expression with skillful use of creativity, design, and manipulation of the viewers’ emotions.

Leo Tolstoy compares art to speech by mentioning that art is a form of communication. The communication that Tolstoy writes about in “What Is Art?” is of two types, good and bad. According to Tolstoy, good art is what carries humanity towards perfection (Tolstoy 383). It is this movement forward in humanity that is emphasized by Tolstoy. Tolstoy informs his readers that speech is what teaches knowledge from human history, but art is what teaches the emotions of mankind’s past. As knowledge becomes obsolete in society it is replaced by new and more relevant information. Tolstoy asserts that emotions act the same way. The purpose of art is to express new and more relevant feelings to humankind. The new feelings are for the