Art issue

Author: Susan Langer (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This book is one of the representative works of semiotics aesthetics, a significant school of Western aesthetics in the 20th century. Art and Feeling and Form are Langer's main works where she elaborates on her aesthetic theories, collectively pointing to her original and significant aesthetic proposition: defining art as "the creation of symbolic forms of human emotion." Art builds upon this theoretical foundation to propose that art should express "the logical forms of life," summarizing the fundamental characteristics of this life form as organicity, movement, rhythm, and continuous growth. It further argues that artistic creation should grasp these features and consciously use artistic intuition to capture the "symbolic connection" between artistic form and the logical forms of life, thereby creating "meaningful forms" that are "consistent with emotion and life forms," i.e., phantasmagoric symbols. Unlike the systematic discussions in Feeling and Form, Art is composed of ten lectures, making it easier to understand.