Some label his a communication theory of art But Tolstoy speaks more strongly - he repeatedly uses the metaphor of infection So his is really a contagion theory The key emotion passes from one person (the artist) to others (the audience) like an infection or disease How can we define art? A weak point of the theory is that it never examines the act of creation and art that is not shared with others. So, what is art for Tolstoy? If it is not moral, it is bad. to Shakespeare and Beethoven. Despite its many weaknesses, this system offers an interesting alternative to judging and appreciating art. , Vol. Tolstoy's aesthetics is a classic formulation of the expressive theory of art. War and Peace is preeminent. I have mentioned three conditions of contagiousness in art, but they may be all summed up into one, the last, sincerity, i.e., that the artist should be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling. To this interpretation leads Tolstoy’s view that, even if a society recognizes no religion, it always has a religious morality. The true definition of art, according to Tolstoy, should be based on moral principles. Leo Tolstoy in a Page 15/23. It concerns the identification of a piece of art as expressing a particular emotion. Tolstoy. However, he also wrote multiple philosophical and theological texts as well as theatrical plays and short stories. Thus is art divided from that which is not art, and thus is the quality of art as art decided, independently of its subject matter, i.e., apart from whether the feelings it transmits are good or bad. Charmed by the faith of the common people, he turned to Christianity. Like? In other words, Tolstoy argues that art was in his time judged as art just because it was labeled as art, a contention which still is carried today, the modern art world filled with pieces which are given consideration simply because rich patrons seduce the attention of so-called art experts and critics. Tolstoy encapsulates his definition of art in the following passages: “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. According to Tolstoy art is the intentional communication of an emotion from the artist to the audience where the hope is that the audience feels the emotion felt by the artist. For fourteen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. Tolstoy believes that art is a means of progress towards perfection. Emotional infectiousness is a necessary quality of a work of art. This is, in my view, the strongest point of Tolstoy’s theory. To justify new productions that please the elites, new theories that expand and reaffirm the canon are constantly created: “No matter what insanities appear in art, when once they find acceptance among the upper classes of our society, a theory is quickly invented to explain and sanction them; just as if there had never been periods in history when certain special circles of people recognized and approved false, deformed, and insensate art which subsequently left no trace and has been utterly forgotten.”. Because we have forgotten, or never knew, the meaning of art, we have dubbed art as “an activity producing pleasure.” Since 2006, I have been spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month to keep Brain Pickings going. Tolstoy is fighting for the social dimension of art. He died in 1810 at the age of 82 after suffering from pneumonia. In his essay “What is Art?” Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace, defines art as a way to communicate emotion with the ultimate goal of uniting humanity. This means that evil cannot be fought with evil means and one should neither accept nor resist it. This means that art serves as a mechanism of cohesion for everyone. Upon completing his masterpiece. The turn of the 12th century BC in the Eastern Mediterranean was a turbulent time, to say the least. War and Peace is preeminent. Tolstoy’s definition expands to almost every aspect of human activity way beyond the fine arts. the Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoy. Underneath his then-radical and controversial reflections, however, lies a rich meditation on the immutable, eternal question of what art — especially “good art” — actually is, and how to tell it from its impostors and opposites. Tolstoy’s theory has a lot of charming aspects. The Russian painter created a series of portraits of Tolstoy, which were exhibited together at the 2019 exhibition, at the State Museum L.N. Leo Tolstoy compares art to speech by mentioning that art is a form of communication. Art, he believes, is a sincere emotion transferred from an artist to others and, as such, is a uniquely human activity. If this labor has enlarged and enriched your own life this year, please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. 34, No. If it is moral, then it is good art. University. "Music is the shorthand of emotion." In the usual understanding of the words, how-ever, "bad art" means something closer to "non-art" or "weak art." This is especially the case in our time where many question art’s importance and see it as a source of confusion and division. By gaining awareness of each other’s feelings we can successfully practice empathy and ultimately unite to further mankind’s collective well-being. Tolstoy is best known for his two longest works, War and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karenina (1875–77), which are commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. It concerns the identification of a piece of art as expressing a particular emotion. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Antonis is an archaeologist with a passion for museums and heritage and a keen interest in aesthetics and the reception of classical art. As you ... For Tolstoy, art was a means of communication between people which expressed feelings. Tolstoy in peasant clothing, Ilya Repin, 1901, State Russian Museum. Having rejected the use of beauty in definitions of art (see aesthetic theory), Tolstoy conceptualises art as anything that communicates emotion: "Art begins when a man, with the purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again … Works of art are everywhere, according to this view. This core quality of art Tolstoy calls its “infectiousness,” and upon the artist’s ability to “infect” others depends the very recognition of something as art: If only the spectators or auditors are infected by the feelings which the author has felt, it is art. https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/09/09/leo-tolstoy-what-is-art-infectiousness/ … And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based. Leo Tolstoy in the Room with the Arches, Ilya Repin, 1891, State Russian Museum. StuDocu University. This was the doctrine that inspired Gandhi and was expressed as non-resistance to evil. Art-The Language of Emotion LEO TOLSTOY Among the novels written by Count Tolstoy (1828-1910). Instead, he supports a moral-based art able to appeal to everyone and not just the privileged few. Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) was born in 1828 in his family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, some 200km from Moscow. Privacy policy. According to Tolstoy, what the artist does is communicate his emotions to the people in his audience and in doing so, evoke those same emotions in them. Furthermore, Tolstoy firmly denies that pleasure is art’s sole purpose. The presence in various degrees of these three conditions — individuality, clearness, and sincerity — decides the merit of a work of art as art, apart from subject matter. Eventually, he dismissed the Russian Church and every other Church as corrupted and looked for his own answers. • In the same that language communicates information to other people, art communicates emotions. As a result, it is possible to easily replace it with all sorts of different ideological schemes. These theories are made to justify the existing art canon which covers anything from Greek art to Shakespeare and Beethoven. what is art summary. Personally, I do not approach Tolstoy’s theory as a set of laws for understanding art. In fact, the definition of religious perception is so wide, that it describes ideology in general. His family belonged in the Russian aristocracy and thus Leo inherited the title of count. . Brain Pickings has a free Sunday digest of the week's most interesting and inspiring articles across art, science, philosophy, creativity, children's books, and other strands of our search for truth, beauty, and meaning. StuDocu University. Art might express emotions, depict or represent emotions, arouse emotions Our first examination of art and emotion: Leo Tolstoy's theory from What is Art? How does Tolstoy understand art to achieve this? what is art summary. Eventually, he left the army right after the end of the Crimean War in 1856. Tolstoy. But what does Tolstoy exactly mean when he says that something is good or bad art? As soon as the spectator, hearer, or reader feels that the artist is infected by his own production, and writes, sings, or plays for himself, and not merely to act on others, this mental condition of the artist infects the receiver; and contrariwise, as soon as the spectator, reader, or hearer feels that the author is not writing, singing, or playing for his own satisfaction — does not himself feel what he wishes to express — but is doing it for him, the receiver, a resistance immediately springs up, and the most individual and the newest feelings and the cleverest technique not only fail to produce any infection but actually repel. Good art is the ability for the audience or viewer to … 328-527. On what might be called the full-blown version of expression theory — instances of which were held by Leo Tolstoy and by Clive Bell — expression is understood as a matter of the communication or transmission of emotion or feeling from artist to audience via the work of art. 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This understanding is the moral compass of a society and always points towards certain values. Tolstoy’s book concerns how art can express ideas of how to act right and what it’s purpose is. Most of the paintings used for this article were drawn by realist painter Ilya Repin. We should not easily dismiss the idea that (good) art communicates feelings and promotes unity through universal understanding. The distinction between real and counterfeit, good and bad art is Tolstoy’s contribution to the field of art criticism. Book title What Is Art; Author. At one point in his essay, he states that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, and his own War and Peace are immoral and therefore bad art. However, he also wrote multiple philosophical and theological texts as well as theatrical plays and short stories. but also in the essays he wrote on cultural and religious subjects. More information regarding the relationship between Tolstoy and Repin can be found in this article. 2017/2018 “إذا كان العمل جيداً كفن، فإن الإحساس الذي يعبر عنه الفنان سينتقل إلى الناس سواء كان أخلاقياً أم غير أخلاقي، وإذا انتقل الإحساس إلى الناس الآخرين، فإنهم … web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil of art/tolstoy.outline.htm The innumerable feelings experienced by humans both in past and present are available to us only through art. And however poetical, realistic, effectful, or interesting a work may be, it is not a work of art if it does not evoke that feeling (quite distinct from all other feelings) of joy and of spiritual union with another (the author) and with others (those who are also infected by it). translated by Aline Delano. That condition includes the first; for if the artist is sincere he will express the feeling as he experienced it. But what does Tolstoy exactly mean when he says that something is good or bad art? Book title What Is Art; Author. Theories of art based on beauty or taste inescapably include only that type of art that appeals to certain people: “First acknowledging a certain set of productions to be art (because they please us) and then framing such a theory of art that all those productions which please a certain circle of people should fit into it.”. It facilitates access to the psychology of others fostering empathy and understanding by tearing down the walls of the Subject. The Russian painter created a series of portraits of Tolstoy, which were exhibited together at the 2019 exhibition “Repin: The Myth of Tolstoy” at the State Museum L.N. He offers three conditions that determine the degree of infectiousness: The stronger the infection, the better is the art as art, speaking now apart from its subject matter, i.e., not considering the quality of the feelings it transmits. 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