Reality in the Mirror of Art - Hardcover

To speak about the relationship between reality and art is like wanting to solve an equation with two unknowns. Nonetheless they are so closely bound up with each other that one is almost bound to mention the two quantities in the same breath. Is there much of a difference then between art and reality? For what is reality but what we make of it? With our cities and buildings, our tamed landscape and manifold utensils, with all the available remedies and media we shape reality at will, in our own image. This, however, is not true only of our concrete products. We form our reality also through the thoughts and ideas we have about ourselves and the world, and through the concepts by which we try to cope with it. Consequently all art must have its origin in a belief in the existence of reality whatever constitutes the kind of reality that the individual professes to see as his own. It is not, therefore, the intention in this volume to explore the universal laws of art and track down the imprint they have left on reality in the work of art. On the contrary, art will be seen as the means of expression which, due to its diversity and changeability, will always be the proper medium to capture the glimpse of the reality current at any given moment and preserve the picture of it in a more lasting, though not in a universally valid form.