The Problem of Form in Painting and Sculpture (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Problem of Form in Painting and Sculpture

Idea of the architectonic structure into the focus of attention, to develop from this point of view the prob lems which form presents and to show their immediate dependence on our relation to Nature. Let it be noted, however, that this dependence does not exclude an ar tist's individuality. Heart and lungs are requisite for life, yet this necessity does not preclude individual va riations in the human body. A person's individuality does not consist in the presence or absence of particu lar organs, but in their various degrees of development. Just as we are able to demonstrate on what the sound ness of a body depends, so may we also demonstrate the nature of the general problems of art and their solutions without excluding the artist's individuality. For, whatever his individuality may be, his work must give a true answer to the questions which Nature puts to him. It is evident that in accordance with the artist's personal development this or that problem will domi nate and become the main one to be The anarchists solved. In no case, however, is ar Of art. Tistic ability manifest in wilfully ignoring the requirements of the material worked in. Those artists who deny any kind of Objective demands are the anarchists of Art, and are not to be taken seriously. It is characteristic of these artists that their incapacity to develop in architectonic manner that which they strive to achieve through imi tation alone, should awaken in them a vague sense of inefficiency; and that they should seek to compensate for this by the addition of something suggestive'or symbolic, intending thereby to raise their work to a higher poetic plane. But sculpture and painting do not.

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