To the rescue of art : twenty-six essays
The provocative title of this new collection of essays was chosen by Rudolf Arnheim for good reason. He has spent a lifetime analyzing the basic psychological principles that make works of visual art meaningful, stirring, indispensable, and lasting. But recent fashionable attitudes and theories about art, he argues, are undermining the foundation of artistic achievement itself. He says that we must face the threat "that the work crew charged with erecting the edifice of our principles is infiltrated by termites." As the leading explorer of the psychology of art, Arnheim has always sought to let works of art speak for themselves. His many books have reached innumerable students, teachers, museum visitors, and theorists. The essays collected in this volume are written in his familiar, careful, and solidly supported manner, but under present circumstances they amount to a call to arms. Included is a series of miniature monographs on a variety of great works of art. In other essays, Arnheim uncovers enlightening perspectives in the art of the blind, in architectural space, in caricature, and in the work of psychotics and autistic children. He also presents new scientific aspects of the psychology of art, and he widens our range of vision by reaching out to connect art with language, literature, and religion. Anyone who prizes vital, spirited interaction with works of art will find this new volume of Arnheim essays a personal treasure
Print Book, English, ©1992
University of California Press, Berkeley, ©1992
works of art
x, 248 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780520074583, 9780520074590, 0520074580, 0520074599
23177867
In favor of confrontation
Art among the objects
What became of abstraction?
The reach of reality in the arts
Space as image of time
The reading of images and the images of reading
Writers' pointers
For your eyes only
Seven exercises in art appreciation
Picasso at Guernica
Sculpture
The nature of a medium
Negative art in architecture
Caricature
The rationale of deformation
Art history and psychology
The melody of motion
Perceptual aspects of art for the blind
The artistry of psychotics
The puzzle of Nadia's drawings
The artist as healer
But is it science?
Complementarity from the outside
Interaction
Its costs and benefits
What is Gestalt psychology?
The two faces of Gestalt theory
Beyond the double truth
Art as religion
In the company of the century