What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1896, is a dissertation on the nature and use of art that discusses how moral principles can be expressed through art. Tolstoy defines art in terms of its capacity to convey moral concepts rather than in terms of its capacity to depict form and beauty. Tolstoy believes that moral qualities are what define artistic values.
Tolstoy believes that art cannot be only an activity that results in beauty. Beauty cannot be objectively defined, hence it cannot be a standard for determining what is or is not art. The creation of beauty or the provision of pleasure, enjoyment, or amusement are not the only goals of art. A vital tool for expressing any experience or facet of the human condition, art is a medium of communication.
According to Tolstoy, art is the expression of a feeling or experience in a way that the audience for whom the art is intended may relate to it. No one social class owns the creation of art. Denying the value of art for all of society would entail limiting its subject matter to the experiences of a specific social class. Tolstoy opposes the idea that art is exclusively important to a particular class of society, calling it a fallacy that might cause art to become obscure and decadent.
Tolstoy believed that good art was understandable and comprehensible. Bad art is incoherent and difficult to understand. Art gets increasingly esoteric and difficult to understand for people outside of that certain audience the more it confines itself to that audience. The majority of people are neither confused by or unable to understand good art. On the other hand, good art can convey its message to the majority of people because it does it in a form that is universally understood.
According to Tolstoy, a work of art is good if the majority of people agree that it is good. In fact, he asserts that a great work of art can only be great if it is accessible to all people. 1 Additionally, he contends that any manifestation of thoughts or emotions that is incomprehensible or intelligible may be referred to as “art” if it is not accepted that art must be understandable and intelligible. The definition of art gradually loses its meaning until it has none at all if any nonsensical form of self-expression may be referred to as “art.” 2
“Good art” has a form and a message that are consistent with the thoughts and emotions it arouses or symbolizes. In contrast, “poor art” lacks coherence between its form and content and the concepts and emotions it seeks to convey or depict. Shallow, repetitive, crude, sloppy, manufactured, theatrical, arrogant, or bland are examples of “bad art.”
Tolstoy believed that the sincerity of a piece of art was its most crucial component.
3 Any genuine work of art conveys its creator’s unique ideas and emotions. The “highest” emotions that art may convey are connected to religious belief.
Tolstoy thinks that if an artist must make a livelihood by their art, then the art that is produced is more likely to be fake and dishonest. He also claims that professionalism causes an artist to lack sincerity. Tolstoy asserts that any good work of art can represent ideas and emotions that are easily understood by the majority of people, making analysis and criticism of it superfluous and useless. Tolstoy contends that any justification for such ideas and emotions is useless since, in the end, art communicates sensations and sentiments in a way that cannot be adequately conveyed through language.
Tolstoy rejects the notion that art can be taught or that teaching in the practice of art may improve the sincerity with which individuals express their thoughts and emotions. He contends that art’s spontaneity is destroyed when it is taught. The personality of the artist is destroyed when art is taught. Any effort to educate art inevitably results in an attempt to copy other pieces of art.
Tolstoy’s idea of “universal” art affirms that everyone may relate to it. Every aspect of the human situation has relevance to art. Art must therefore strive to be “universal.” If a work of art reflects ideas and emotions that every person can relate to, then it qualifies as “universal.”
Tolstoy asserts that anybody can have religious sensations or thoughts. Thus, if art conveys religious sentiments, it is “universal.” The religious insight or view that can be conveyed via art is that societal harmony and understanding are essential for human welfare. The idea that people must respect one another, make an effort to understand one another, and experience a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood with one another is expressed through art that is genuinely “universal.”
The very unique and independent character of Tolstoy’s particular vision of Christianity is reflected in his perspective on art. Although he makes an effort to establish a “universal” art as an art of inclusion, his aesthetic theory is primarily concerned with his own idea of morality, which defines an art of exclusion. Because he thinks “universal” art must adhere to principles that are moral and social as well as strictly aesthetic, he excludes numerous types of art from his definition.
It is imperative to think about whether aesthetic values are equivalent to moral and social values in light of this aesthetic philosophy. Tolstoy believes that “excellent” art must convey some sort of holy experience, hence he rejects a wide range of artistic mediums from what he deems to be “good” art. As examples of “excellent” art, he cites the works of composers Bach and Mozart, playwright Molire, poets Goethe and Hugo, and authors Dickens and Dostoyevsky. However, he cites the works of Ibsen, Wagner, and Liszt as well as their respective plays, poetry, and music as examples of “poor” art.
According to Tolstoy, good art must be religious in nature. He believes that religious art should reflect his personal religious views and that his brand of Christianity is the only authentic kind of Christianity. However, the claim that good art isn’t always religious art can be used to refute his intensely subjective but very constrained point of view. He erroneously believes that the ultimate goal of art must be defined by his own moral philosophy as a result of his argument that aesthetic values must be moral and religious values.
In This Article...
What does Plato and Tolstoy define as art?
Tolstoy disagreed with the notion that the goal of art is to find beauty or pleasure. He saw art as the expression of human emotion from one person to another. It served as “a tool for fostering human connection.
participates in it.
The receiver, whose awareness merges with the author’s, is more happy with the transmission of the feelingwhich, in his opinion, he has known and felt for a long time but has only now found expression forthe more clearly it is expressed.
The genuineness of the artist, though, has the greatest impact on how contagious their work is.
This mental condition of the artist infects the receiver as soon as the spectator, hearer, or reader perceives that the artist is infected by his own production and writes, sings, or plays for himself rather than merely to act on others. In contrast, as soon as the receiver perceives that the author is not writing, singing, or playing for his own satisfaction, does not feel what he wishes to express but is doing it for him, the receiver responds with resistance.
The question of whether or not the emotions being expressed are themselves worthy of expression, as well as to what extent and in what manner, is addressed by the second sense, which I will refer to as the “external sense of goodness.”
Given the vital societal function that Tolstoy accords to art, it makes reasonable that this view of good and terrible art takes the majority of his attention. This style of judgment is strictly speaking not aesthetic but moral.
Tolstoy believes that the finest art is always religious art in this sense, which seems obviously incorrect unless one is aware of the specific and unusual way in which Tolstoy interprets the term “religious.”
He uses the term “religious perception” rather than “religion” per se because he is not literally speaking of established religions or true religious cults, but rather of a way of perceiving.
There is a life-meaning understanding that exists in every era of history and in
What does the author define as art?
According to Aristotle, “The purpose of art is to reflect not the outer aspect of things, but their inner value.” Throughout the history of art, the idea that beauty or nature are being imitated in art has persisted.
What Is Art was written by Tolstoy when?
He maintained that genuine art necessitates a sensitive perception of a particular experience, a highly specific sensation that is given to the reader not by arguments but by “infection” in Chto takoye iskusstvo? (1898; What Is Art?) Most renowned works of high art, in Tolstoy’s opinion, are not the result of any real
What does Socrates define as art?
The Republic, Book X, by Plato, contains the earliest Western conception of art. Socrates defines imitation as art there. Then he claims that using mirrors makes it very simple to obtain flawless impersonations. His goal is to demonstrate how reflections, shadows, illusions, and dreams are all part of the realm of art.
What does John Dewey consider to be art?
John Dewey thought that everyone has the potential to be an artist, leading a life filled with creative social interaction that benefits others and so enhances the beauty of the world. Dewey reminds his readers in Art as Experience that the second Council of Nicea forbade the church from using incense and statutes that prevented people from praying. Dewey makes an unusual about-face by removing doctrine from the church while praising the sensory elements that help us comprehend human experience better. Dewey calls attention to a paradox: the need for and appreciation of the “experiential artifact,” yet the role of art as a catalyst for worlds beyond the material. Art serves as experience in Dewey’s eyes. Inquiry, searching, and meaning-finding processes have a transforming effect through strengthening links with what is right and good. Expanded perceptions create new opportunities for comprehension and action. Paying attention to the little things awakens the potential for meaning and produces significant, previously unnoticed societal insights. People have transformative experiences when they grasp new ideas and give rise to valuable ways of perceiving. Education and moral purpose are transmitted through art. According to Dewey, moral aim is justifiable and art that conveys themes that encourage contemplation on meaningful lives is justifiable. Dewey is a pragmatist who views art as a route to democracy, which he sees as a just and equitable end in itself.
What does Picasso define as art?
Only a strategy, in which we must firmly believe and upon which we must act vehemently, will help us achieve our goals. There is only one way to achieve success.
The application of a canon of beauty is not what art is, but rather what the instinct and the mind may imagine without reference to any canon. We don’t begin weighing a woman’s limbs when we fall in love.
Children are all creative. How to continue being an artist as you get older is the issue.
A concept is merely a starting point. As soon as you expand on it, mind transforms it.
The world is a miracle. The fact that one does not dissolve like a lump of sugar in one’s bath is a marvel.
Whoever believes he can, can, and who believes he cannot, cannot. This law is unchangeable and unassailable.
I don’t think accidents happen. In history, there have only been interactions. There aren’t any mishaps.
Painting like Raphael took me four years, but painting like a child took a lifetime.
No abstract art exists. There is always a place to begin. Then you may erase all signs of reality.
Every positive value has a corresponding negative value, and Einstein’s intellect resulted in Hiroshima.
Whoever believes he can, can, and who believes he cannot, cannot. This law is unchangeable and unassailable.
Children are all creative. How to continue being an artist as you get older is the issue.
A blind man works as a painter. He draws what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen, rather than what he sees.
People have observed what is and questioned why. I’ve seen what might be and questioned why it isn’t.
You can’t always take what I say at face value. You are more tempted to tell lies when there is no clear answer to a question.
My mother once told me as a child, “If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general.” You’ll become the Pope if you choose to become a monk. Rather, I changed into a painter and ended up as Pablo Picasso.
How should art be defined?
Art is a visible object or experience that has been purposefully made through the expression of talent or creativity. It is also referred to as visual art to separate it from other art disciplines. The term “art” includes a variety of media, including photography, installation, decorative arts, printmaking, painting, and sculpture.