Every art does what. Art as a specific form of reflection of reality

The meaning of art
Quotes about art on the site

Art is an attempt to create another, more human world next to the real world.

André Maurois

Art is a reality ordered by the artist, bearing the stamp of his temperament, which manifests itself in style.

André Maurois

The highest goal that art can serve is the ability for people to understand life more deeply and love it more.

Rockwell Kent

We all waste our days in search of the meaning of life. Know that this meaning is in Art.

Oscar Wilde

Art is the expression of the deepest thoughts in the simplest way.

Albert Einstein

The arts are useful only if they develop the mind and do not distract it.

Seneca

The main goal of art is not an empty copying of objects and objects. It should give a new, sensual, real.

Honore de Balzac

The task of art is to wipe our eyes.

Karl Kraus

Art has as its task to reveal the truth in a sensual form.

Georg Wilhelm

A work of art is a piece of nature filtered through the temperament of the artist.

Emile Zola

Art is only in its proper place when it is subordinated to utility. His task is to teach lovingly; and it is shameful when it is only pleasing to people, and does not help them to discover the truth.

John Ruskin

The unmistakable sign that something is not art, or someone doesn't understand art, is boredom.

Bertolt Brecht

There is no art without experience.

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky

The job of an artist is to create joy.

Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky

The task of art is to excite hearts.

Claude Adrian Helvetius

Art is the medium of that which cannot be expressed.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Art is a mirror where everyone sees himself.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Art is more of a veil than a mirror.

Oscar Wilde

Art is the most beautiful, the most rigorous, the most joyful and benevolent symbol of the eternal, not subject to reason, human striving for goodness, for truth and perfection.

Thomas Mann

The task of the artist is to make people children.

Friedrich Nietzsche

That is the only art that responds to real feelings and thoughts, and does not serve as a sweet dessert that you can do without.

Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov

Art and nature
Quotes about art on the site

All art is an imitation of nature.

Seneca

The artist's view of the phenomena of external and internal life differs from the usual: it is colder and more passionate.

Thomas Mann

The object of Art should not be simple reality, but complex beauty.

Oscar Wilde

Truth is not always art, and art is not always truth, but truth and art have common ground.

Renard

The most important rule of art is that it cannot imitate anything other than the plausible.

Lope de Vega

Depicting something, we take on a huge responsibility - to understand nature and depict it as completely as possible.

Vladimir Andreevich Favorsky

Nature does not need to be copied, but it is necessary to feel its essence and free it from accidents.

Isaac Levitan

The truth of nature cannot be and never will be the truth of art.

Honore de Balzac

Precisely because true art strives for something real and objective, it cannot be satisfied with the appearance of truth alone.

Johann Friedrich Schiller

When you try to portray something, a strange feeling is born, as if you had never seen this object before. Something completely new is being born right in front of your eyes.

Paul Valery

Finding the incredible in the most ordinary, and finding the ordinary in the incredible is real art.

Denis Diderot

The creations of the sane will be eclipsed by the creations of the violent.

Plato

Art ceases to be art as soon as our consciousness begins to perceive it as art.

R. Wagner

Art does not depict the visible, but makes it visible.

Paul Klee

The painter who sketches meaninglessly, guided by the practice and judgment of the eye, is like a mirror that reflects all the objects opposed to it, without having knowledge of them.

Leonardo da Vinci

Art and science
Quotes about art on the site

Experience is knowledge of the individual, and art is knowledge of the general.

Aristotle

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein

The most beautiful thing we can experience in life is mystery. It is the source of all true art or science.

Albert Einstein

Science is spectral analysis; art is a synthesis of light.

Karl Kraus

Art is a guess about what science does not yet know.

Emil Krotky

To evaluate works of art, we will never have anything but feeling and reason, and these are the most inaccurate tools in the world.

Anatole de France

Science calms, art exists in order not to calm down.

Georges Braque

There can be neither patriotic art nor patriotic science.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

No art is closed in itself. All arts consist in the exploration of truth.

Mark Tullius Cicero

Art allows us to say even what we do not know.

G. Laub

The artist's direct duty is to show, not to prove.

Alexander Blok

Without imagination there is no art, just as there is no science.

Franz Liszt

Anyone can study science - one with more, the other with less difficulty. But from art everyone receives as much as he himself is able to give.

Schopenhauer

Laws and theories are good in a situation of uncertainty. In moments of inspiration, tasks are resolved intuitively, by themselves.

Johannes Itten

Imagination is synonymous with the ability to discover.

Federico Garcia Lorca

I have never separated the artist from the thinker, just as I cannot separate the art form from the artistic thought.

Frederic de Stendhal

If science is the memory of the mind, then art is the memory of feeling.

Vladimir Alekseevich Soloukhin

Art and money
Quotes about art on the site

The great ones pay for art with their lives, the small ones earn their living.

Emil Krotky

It is easy to turn into the path of cheap art. Enough to create vulgar and unnatural.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

The moment an artist thinks about money, he loses his sense of beauty.

Denis Diderot

Art is a mysterious business where you can make all sorts of mistakes and still make money.

R. Chandler

"Modern" is a word for a kind of art about which there is nothing more to say.

"20,000 Quips & Quotes"

There is no contemporary art. There is only art - and advertising.

Atbert Sterner

In art, the form is everything, the material is worth nothing.

Heinrich Heine

Art and labor
Quotes about art on the site

In order to achieve heights in art, you need to give him a whole life.

Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov

Inspiration is such a guest who does not like to visit the lazy.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Woe to the artist who seeks to show his talent and not his picture.

Romain Rolland

Constant labor is the law of both art and life.

Honore de Balzac

Every artist has courage, without which talent is unthinkable.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Nothing real is created in art without enthusiasm.

Robert Schumann

Neither art nor wisdom can be achieved unless they are learned.

Democritus

Art is like searching for diamonds. Looking for a hundred people, finds one. But this one would never have found a diamond if a hundred people were not looking nearby.

Vladimir Alekseevich Soloukhin

When love and skill come together, you can expect a masterpiece.

John Ruskin

Disadvantages are always where creativity ends and work begins.

Art has two most dangerous enemies: the craftsman who is not illuminated by talent and the talent who does not master the craft.

Anatole de France

The goal of creativity is self-giving,

Not a hype, not a success.

When the feeling dictates the line

It sends a slave to the stage,

And this is where the art ends.

And the soil and fate breathe.

Boris Pasternak

Art requires either solitude, or need, or passion.

Alexandre Dumas (son)

Whether he holds a chisel, pen or brush in his hand, the artist really deserves this name only when he infuses the soul into material objects or gives form to spiritual impulses.

Alexandre Dumas (son)

The poet is the master of inspiration. He must command them.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Painting is jealous and demands that a person belong to her entirely.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

With some abilities, the craft of a poet or artist can, of course, be learned, but the craft will remain a craft: without creative insight, it is impossible to overstep the boundaries of imitation or copying. However, a creative emotional impulse is not enough, because without a persistent desire for a goal, it is impossible to create a finished work. Art requires sacrifice from its creators, and the ability to sacrifice oneself for the sake of an ideal is precisely the manifestation of passionarity.

Lev Gumilev "From Russia to Russia"

Art and audience
Quotes about art on the site

There are three kinds of people: those who see; those who see when they are shown; and those who do not see.

Leonardo da Vinci

There are no new directions in art, there is one thing - from person to person.

Stanislav Jerzy Lec

The arts soften morals.

Ovid

Everyone should be a work of art - or wear a work of art.

Oscar Wilde

There are two ways to dislike art. One of them is to simply not love him. The other is to love him rationally.

Oscar Wilde

The arts would be happy if they were judged by artists alone.

Marc Fabius Quintilian

If a play is a work of art, its staging in the theater is not a test for the play, but for the theater; if it is not a work of art, its production in the theater is not a test for the play, but for the public.

Oscar Wilde

Art does not reflect life, but the viewer.

Oscar Wilde

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Genuine immortal works of art remain accessible and delight all times and peoples.

Hegel

Each work of art belongs to its time, its people, its environment.

Hegel

Great objects of art are great only because they are understandable and accessible to everyone.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

In areas where the arts flourished, the most beautiful people were born.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Art is a surrogate for life, because art is loved by those who have failed in life.

V. Klyuchevsky

Art is more easily attuned to poverty and luxury than to contentment. The whole character of philistinism, with its good and evil, is disgusting, too small for art.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen

Art created for twelve people eventually becomes the property of twelve million.

Tadeusz Pijper

Each work of art changes its predecessors.

Mason Cooley

Everyone must stand in front of the picture just as before the king, waiting to see if she will say something to him and what exactly she will say, and both with the king and with the picture he does not dare to speak first, otherwise he will hear only himself.

Arthur Schopenhauer

To be truly kind, a person must have a vivid imagination, he must be able to imagine himself in the place of another. Imagination is the best instrument of moral perfection.

Percy Shelley

A country that taught to draw as one taught to read and write would soon surpass all other countries in all the arts, sciences, and crafts.

Denis Diderot

Even in my youth, I already understood that art is more generous than people.

Maksim Gorky

Somerset Maugham

Art can only be called real if it finds a response in the heart of everyone, and is not understood only by a handful of aristocrats, diligently pretending that they understand it ...

Romain Rolland

Other sayings about art
Quotes about art on the site

Painting is poetry that is seen, and poetry is painting that is heard.

Leonardo da Vinci

Where the thought does not work together with the hand, there is no artist. Where the spirit does not guide the hand of the artist, there is no art.

Leonardo da Vinci

Art is the only serious thing in the world, but the artist is the only person in the world who is never serious.

Oscar Wilde

In every work of art, great or small, down to the smallest, everything comes down to a concept.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Life is short, art is long...

Hippocrates

Art is always the work of the whole person. So it's basically tragic.

Franz Kafka

Previously, they were afraid that objects that corrupt people would not fall into the number of art objects, and they banned all of it. Now they are only afraid that they might be deprived of some pleasure given by art, and patronize everyone. And I think that the latter error is much grosser than the first, and that its consequences are much more harmful.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Nothing confuses the concepts of art so much as the recognition of authorities.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Art wins by turning away from vulgarity.

Georgy Plekhanov

To say what you think is sometimes the greatest stupidity, and sometimes the greatest art.

Maria Ebner Eschenbach

For such a small creature as a person, there can be no trifles. It is only by attaching importance to trifles that we achieve the great art of suffering less and rejoicing more.

Samuel Johnson

Eloquence is the art of speaking in such a way that those to whom we are addressing listen not only without difficulty, but also with pleasure, so that, captured by a topic and spurred on by pride, they want to delve deeper into it.

Blaise Pascal

The true artist is devoid of vanity, he understands only too well that art is inexhaustible.

Ludwig van Beethoven

The greatness of art lies in this eternal tension between beauty and suffering, love for people and a passion for creativity, the torment of loneliness and irritation from the crowd, rebellion and harmony. Art balances between two abysses - frivolity and propaganda. On the crest of a ridge along which a great artist walks forward, each step is an adventure, the greatest risk. In this risk, however, and in this alone lies the freedom of art.

Albert Camus

Art has bouts of chastity. It cannot call a spade a spade.

Albert Camus

The painting of those who learn from me is alive, and those who imitate me are lifeless, dead.

Qi Bai Shi

Inspiration is the disposition of the soul towards a lively acceptance of impressions, and consequently towards a quick understanding of concepts, which contributes to their explanation.

Alexander Pushkin

In all forms of art it is necessary to experience those sensations that you want to evoke in others.

Frederic de Stendhal

Talent is nothing more than the gift to generalize and choose.

Eugene Delacroix

The ability to convey the whole is the main sign of a true artist.

Eugene Delacroix

Art is the collaboration of God with the artist, and the less the artist, the better.

André Gide

In art, what is shown is already proven.

Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky

Art without the thought that a person without a soul is a corpse.

Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky

All art is autobiographical; a pearl is an autobiography of an oyster.

Federico Fellini

If classical art is cold, it is because its flame is eternal.

Salvador Dali

A brush, a hand and a palette are needed to paint, but the picture is not created by them at all.

Jean Chardin

They use colors, but write with feelings.

Jean Chardin

I start with an idea and then it becomes something.

Picasso

There are areas in which mediocrity is unbearable: poetry, music, painting, oratory.

J. La Bruyère

The student copies not out of imitation, but out of a desire to join the mystery of the Image.

Petr Miturich

Color should be thought out, inspired, dreamed out.

Gustave Moreau

Art is possible only when there is a need for self-construction of the image - through mastering the vocabulary, forms and content elements, and only then does it provide communication.

Alexey Fedorovich Losev

Art is the clothing of the nation.

Honore de Balzac

Simplicity, truth and naturalness - these are the three main signs of the great.

Victor Hugo

In essence, there is no beautiful style, no beautiful line, no beautiful color, the only beauty is the truth that becomes visible.

Auguste Rodin

Through the beautiful - to the human.

Vasily Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinsky

Bad pictures are mostly bad not because they are badly written, they are badly written because they are badly conceived.

Johannes Robert Becher

The creation of a work is the universe.

Wassily Kandinsky

The main task of color is to serve as expressiveness.

Henri Matisse

Without a sense of modernity, the artist will remain unrecognized.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin

The artist must be present in his work, like God in the universe: to be omnipresent and invisible.

Gustave Flaubert

No work of genius has ever been based on hatred or contempt.

Albert Camus

Painting allows you to see things as they once were, when they were looked at with love.

Paul Valery

To send light into the depths of the human heart - this is the purpose of the artist.

It is true that this sign is internal, and that people who have forgotten about the action produced by real art and expect something completely different from art - and such people among our society are the vast majority - may think that that feeling of entertainment and some excitement, which they experience when they imitate art, and there is an aesthetic feeling, and although it is impossible to dissuade these people, just as it is impossible to dissuade a patient with color blindness from the fact that green is not red, nevertheless this sign is for people with a sense that is not perverted and not atrophied in relation to art remains quite definite and clearly distinguishes the feeling produced by art from any other.
The main feature of this feeling is that the perceiver merges with the artist to such an extent that it seems to him that the object he perceives was made not by someone else, but by himself, and that everything that is expressed by this object is the very thing that he had long wanted to express. A real work of art does what in the mind of the perceiver destroys the separation between him and the artist, and not only between him and the artist, but also between him and all people who perceive the same work of art. It is in this liberation of the individual from his separation from other people, from his loneliness, in this fusion of the individual with others, that the main attractive force and property of art lies.
If a person experiences this feeling, becomes infected with the state of the soul in which the author is, and feels his merging with other people, then the object that causes this state is art; there is no infection, no fusion with the author and with those who perceive the work, and there is no art. But not only is contagiousness an undoubted sign of art, the degree of contagiousness is also the only measure of the dignity of art.
The stronger the infection, the better art as art, not to mention its content, that is, regardless of the dignity of the feelings that it conveys.
Art becomes more or less contagious due to three conditions: 1) due to the greater or lesser peculiarity of the feeling that is transmitted; 2) due to the greater or lesser clarity of the transfer of this feeling and 3) due to the sincerity of the artist, that is, the greater or lesser force with which the artist himself experiences the feeling that he conveys.
The more special the transmitted feeling, the stronger it affects the perceiver. The perceiver experiences the greater pleasure, the more special is the state of the soul into which he is transferred, and therefore the more willingly and more strongly merges with it.
The clarity of the expression of the feeling contributes to contagion, because, merging with the author in his consciousness, the perceiver is all the more satisfied, the more clearly the feeling is expressed, which, as it seems to him, he has long known and experienced and to which he has only now found expression.
Most of all, the degree of contagiousness of art increases by the degree of sincerity of the artist. As soon as the viewer, listener, reader feels that the artist himself is infected by his work and writes, sings, plays for himself, and not just to influence others, such a state of mind of the artist infects the perceiver, and vice versa: as soon as the viewer, reader , the listener feels that the author, not for his own satisfaction, but for him, for the perceiver, writes, sings, plays and does not feel himself what he wants to express, so is the rebuff, and the most special, new feeling, and the most skillful technique not only do not make any impression, but repel.
I am talking about three conditions for the contagiousness and dignity of art, but in essence there is only one last condition, that is, that the artist should feel an inner need to express the feeling he conveys. This condition includes the first, because if the artist is sincere, he will express the feeling as he perceived it. And since each person is not like another, this feeling will be especially for everyone else and the more special, the deeper the artist scoops, the more sincere and sincere it is. The same sincerity will force the artist to find a clear expression of the feeling that he wants to convey.
That is why this third condition - sincerity - is the most important of the three. This condition is always present in folk art, which is why it operates so strongly, and is almost completely absent in our art of the upper classes, which is constantly produced by artists for their personal, selfish or vain purposes.
These are the three conditions, the presence of which separates art from imitations of it and at the same time determines the dignity of any work of art, regardless of its content.
The absence of one of these conditions means that the work no longer belongs to art, but to fakes of it. If a work does not convey the artist's individual feeling, and therefore not especially, if it is incomprehensibly expressed, or if it does not come from the author's inner need, it is not a work of art. If, however, all three conditions are present, even in the smallest degree, then the work, however weak, is a work of art.
The presence in varying degrees of three conditions: features, clarity and sincerity, determines the dignity of objects of art as art, regardless of its content. All works of art are distributed in their dignity by the presence, to a greater or lesser extent, of one, the other, or the third of these conditions. In one, the peculiarity of the transmitted feeling prevails, in the other - clarity of expression, in the third - sincerity, in the fourth sincerity and peculiarity, but lack of clarity, in the fifth - peculiarity and clarity, but less sincerity, etc. in all possible degrees and combinations .
This separates art from non-art and determines the dignity of art as art, regardless of its content, that is, regardless of whether it conveys good or bad feelings.
But what determines good and bad art in terms of content?
XVI
What defines good and bad art in terms of content?
Art, together with speech, is one of the tools of communication, and therefore of progress, that is, the movement forward of mankind towards perfection. Speech makes it possible for people of the last living generations to know everything that previous generations and the best advanced people of our time learned by experience and reflection; art makes it possible for the people of the last living generations to experience all those feelings that people have experienced before and are currently experiencing the best advanced people. And just as the evolution of knowledge takes place, that is, more true, necessary knowledge displaces and replaces erroneous and unnecessary knowledge, so exactly does the evolution of feelings take place through art, displacing lower feelings, less good and less necessary for the good of people by more kind, more necessary for this good. This is the purpose of art. And therefore, in terms of its content, art is the better, the more it fulfills this purpose, and the worse, the less it fulfills it.
The evaluation of feelings, that is, the recognition of certain feelings as more or less good, that is, necessary for the good of people, is accomplished by the religious consciousness of a certain time.
In every given historical time and in every human society, there is a higher understanding of the meaning of life that the people of this society have only reached, which determines the highest good that the ego society strives for. This understanding is the religious consciousness of a certain time and society. This religious consciousness is always clearly expressed by some progressive people of society and more or less vividly felt by all. Such a religious consciousness, corresponding to its expression, is always present in every society. If it seems to us that there is no religious consciousness in society, then this seems to us not because it really does not exist, but because we do not want to see it. And we do not want to see it often because it denounces our life, which does not agree with it.
Religious consciousness in society is like the direction of a flowing river. If the river is flowing, then there is the direction in which it flows. If a society lives, then there is a religious consciousness that indicates the direction in which all the people of this society are more or less consciously striving.
And therefore religious consciousness has always been and is in every society. And according to this religious consciousness, the feelings conveyed by art have always been evaluated. Only on the basis of this religious consciousness of its time has always been distinguished from the entire infinitely diverse field of art that which conveys feelings that realize in life the religious consciousness of this time. And such art has always been highly valued and encouraged; art, however, which conveys feelings arising from the religious consciousness of the past, backward, already experienced, has always been condemned and despised. The rest of all art, which conveys all the most diverse feelings through which people communicate with each other, was not condemned and allowed, if only it did not convey feelings that were contrary to religious consciousness. For example, the Greeks singled out, approved and encouraged art that conveyed feelings of beauty, strength, courage (Hesiod, Homer, Phidias), and condemned and despised art that conveyed feelings of coarse sensuality, despondency, pampering. The Jews singled out and encouraged art that conveyed feelings of devotion and obedience to the god of the Jews, his precepts (some parts of the book of Genesis, prophets, psalms), and condemned and despised art that conveyed feelings of idolatry (golden calf); all the rest of the art - stories, songs, dances, home decorations, utensils, clothes - which was not contrary to religious consciousness, was not recognized and was not discussed at all. This is how art has always and everywhere been regarded in terms of its content, and this is how it should be regarded, because such an attitude towards art follows from the properties of human nature, and these properties do not change.
I know that, according to the opinion widespread in our time, religion is a superstition experienced by mankind, and that therefore it is assumed that in our time there is no religious consciousness common to all people, according to which art could be regarded. I know that this is the common opinion in the supposedly educated circles of our time. People who do not recognize Christianity in its true sense and therefore invent for themselves all sorts of philosophical and aesthetic theories that hide from them the meaninglessness and viciousness of their lives, and cannot think otherwise. These people deliberately, and sometimes unintentionally, confusing the concept of the cult of religion with the concept of religious existence, think that by denying the cult, they thereby deny the religious consciousness. But all these attacks on religion and attempts to establish a worldview that is contrary to the religious consciousness of our time most clearly prove the presence of this religious consciousness, which exposes the life of people that disagrees with it.
If progress is made in humanity, that is, a movement forward, then there must inevitably be an indication of the direction of this movement. And religions have always been such a guide. All history shows that the progress of mankind has been made only under the guidance of religion. But if the progress of mankind cannot be accomplished without the guidance of religion—and progress is always being made, and therefore is being made in our time—then there must be a religion of our time. So, whether the so-called educated people of our time like it or not, they must recognize the existence of religion, not a religion of worship - Catholic, Protestant, etc., but religious consciousness, as a necessary leader of progress in our time. If, however, there is a religious consciousness among us, then on the basis of this religious consciousness our art must also be evaluated; and in exactly the same way, and always and everywhere, should be distinguished from all indifferent art, art that conveys feelings arising from the religious consciousness of our time should be consciously, highly valued and encouraged, and art that is contrary to this consciousness should be condemned and despised, and not singled out and not all other indifferent art is encouraged.
The religious consciousness of our time in its most general practical application is the consciousness that our good, both material and spiritual, both individual and general, both temporal and eternal, lies in the fraternal life of all people, in our loving union with each other. This consciousness is expressed not only by Christ and all the best people of the past, and is not only repeated in the most diverse forms and from the most diverse sides by the best people of our time, but already serves as the guiding thread of all the complex work of mankind, consisting, on the one hand, in the destruction of physical and moral barriers that hinder the unity of people, and, on the other hand, in the establishment of those principles common to all people, which can and should unite people into one worldwide brotherhood. On the basis of this consciousness, we must evaluate all the phenomena of our life and between them our art, singling out from its entire field that which conveys feelings arising from this religious consciousness, highly appreciating and encouraging this art and denying that which is disgusting. this consciousness, and without attributing to the rest of the art a meaning that is unusual for it.
The main mistake that the people of the upper classes of the time of the so-called Renaissance made - the mistake we continue now - was not that they ceased to value and attribute significance to religious art (people of that time could not attribute significance to it, because, like the people of the upper classes of our time, they could not believe in what was considered by the majority to be religion), but in the fact that in place of this absent religious art they put an insignificant art, with the goal only of the pleasure of people, that is, they began to single out , appreciate and encourage, as a religious art, something that in no way deserved this appreciation and encouragement.
One church father said that the main grief of people is not that they do not know God, but that they have put in the place of God what is not God. It's the same with art. The main misfortune of the people of the upper classes of our time is not yet that they do not have religious art, but that they have singled out the most insignificant, mostly harmful art in place of the highest religious art, singled out from everything else, as especially important and valuable. which aims at the enjoyment of some, and therefore, by its exclusiveness alone, is already contrary to that Christian principle of universal unity, which constitutes the religious consciousness of our time. Empty and often depraved art has been put in place of religious art, and this conceals from people the need for that true religious art that must exist in life in order to improve it.
It is true that the art that satisfies the requirements of the religious consciousness of our time is completely different from the former art, but despite this dissimilarity, what constitutes the religious art of our time is very clear and definite for a person who deliberately does not hide the truth from himself. In former times, when the highest religious consciousness united only some, albeit a very large one among others, a society of people: Jews, Athenian, Roman citizens, the feelings conveyed by the art of those times stemmed from the desire for power, greatness, glory, prosperity of these societies, and the heroes of art could be people who contribute to this prosperity by force, deceit, cunning, cruelty (Odysseus, Jacob, David, Samson, Hercules and all the heroes). The religious consciousness of our time does not single out any "one" society of people - on the contrary, it requires the union of all, absolutely all people without exception, and above all other virtues it puts brotherly love for all people, and therefore the feelings conveyed by the art of our time are not only cannot coincide with the feelings conveyed by the former art, but must be opposed to them.
Christian, truly Christian art for a long time could not be established, and has not been established until now, precisely because the Christian religious consciousness was not one of those small steps by which humanity is steadily advancing, but was a huge upheaval, if not yet changed, then inevitably must change everything. life understanding of people and the whole internal structure of their life. It is true that the life of mankind, like the life of an individual, moves uniformly, but among this uniform movement there are, as it were, turning points that sharply separate the previous life from the next. Christianity was such a turning point for humanity, at least that is how it should appear to us, the living Christian consciousness. Christian consciousness gave a different, new direction to all the feelings of people and therefore completely changed both the content and the meaning of art. The Greeks could use the art of the Persians and the Romans the art of the Greeks, just as the Jews could use the art of the Egyptians - the basic ideals were the same. The ideal was either the greatness and goodness of the Persians, then the greatness and goodness of the Greeks or Romans. One and the same art was transferred to other conditions and was suitable for new peoples. But the Christian ideal changed, turned everything upside down so that, as it is said in the Gospel: "what was great before people, became an abomination before God." The ideal was not the greatness of the pharaoh and the Roman emperor, not the beauty of the Greek or the wealth of Phoenicia, but humility, chastity, compassion, love. The hero was not the rich man, but the beggar Lazarus; Mary of Egypt, not during her beauty, but during her repentance; not the acquirers of wealth, but those who distributed it, living not in palaces, but in catacombs and huts, people who do not rule over others, but people who do not recognize anyone's power except God. And the highest work of art is not the temple of victory with statues of the victors, but the image of the human soul, transformed by love so that the tormented and killed person pities and loves his tormentors.
And that is why it is difficult for the people of the Christian world to stop from the inertia of pagan art, with which they have grown together all their lives. The content of Christian religious art is so new to them, so unlike the content of the old art, that it seems to them that Christian art is the negation of art, and they desperately cling to the old art. Meanwhile, this old art, in our time no longer having a source in the religious consciousness, has lost all its significance, and we, willy-nilly, must abandon it.
The essence of Christian consciousness consists in the recognition by each person of his sonship to God and the resulting unity of people with God and among themselves, as it is said in the Gospel (John XVII, 21), and therefore the content of Christian art is such feelings that contribute to the unity of people with God and among themselves.
The expression: the unity of people with God and among themselves, may seem obscure to people who are accustomed to hearing such a frequent abuse of these words, and yet these words have a very clear meaning. These words mean that the Christian unity of people, in contrast to the partial, exclusive unity of only some people, is that which unites all people without exception.
Art, all art in itself, has the ability to connect people. What every art does is that people who perceive the feeling conveyed by the artist unite in soul, firstly, with the artist and, secondly, with all people who have received the same impression. But non-Christian art, by uniting some people among themselves, by this very association separates them from other people, so that this particular association often serves as a source not only of division, but of hostility towards other people. Such is all patriotic art, with its hymns, poems, monuments; such is all ecclesiastical art, that is, the art of certain cults with their icons, statues, processions, services, temples; such is the art of war, such is all refined art, actually depraved, accessible only to people who oppress other people, people of the idle, rich classes. Such art is backward art, not Christian art, which unites some people only in order to separate them even more sharply from other people and even place them in a hostile relationship with other people. Christian art is only that which unites all people without exception - either by that which evokes in people the consciousness of the sameness of their position in relation to God and neighbor, or by that which evokes in people one and the same feeling, although the simplest, but not contrary to Christianity and characteristic of all people without exception.
Christian good art of our time may not be understood by people due to the lack of its form or due to the inattention of people to it, but it must be such that all people can experience the feelings that are transmitted to them. It should not be the art of any one circle of people, not one estate, not one nationality, not one religious cult, that is, not to convey feelings that are accessible only to a well-educated person in a certain way, or only to a nobleman, merchant, or only to a Russian, Japanese , or a Catholic, or a Buddhist, etc., but feelings available to every person. Only such art can be recognized as good art in our time and distinguished from all other art and encouraged.
Christian art, that is, the art of our time, must be catholic in the direct meaning of the word, that is, universal, and therefore must unite all people. Only two kinds of feelings connect all people: feelings arising from the consciousness of sonship to God and the brotherhood of people, and the simplest feelings - worldly, but those that are accessible to all people without exception, such as feelings of fun, tenderness, cheerfulness, tranquility, etc. Only these two kinds of feelings constitute the subject matter of art of our time that is good in content.
And the action produced by these two seemingly so different kinds of art is one and the same. Feelings arising from the consciousness of sonship to God and the brotherhood of people, as feelings of firmness in truth, devotion to the will of God, self-denial, respect for man and love for him, arising from Christian religious consciousness, and the simplest feelings - a tender or cheerful mood from a song, or from a joke that is funny and understandable to all people, or a touching story, or a drawing, or a doll - they produce one and the same action - the loving unity of people. It happens that people, being together, if not hostile, then alien to each other in their moods and feelings, and suddenly either a story, or a performance, or a picture, even a building and most often music, like an electric spark, connects all these people, and all these people, instead of the former disunity, often even hostility, feel unity and love for each other. Everyone rejoices that the other experiences the same as he does, rejoices in the fellowship that has been established not only between him and all those present, but also between all now living people who will receive the same impression; moreover, one feels the mysterious joy of communion beyond the grave with all the people of the past who experienced the same feeling, and the people of the future who will experience it. It is this action that equally produces both the art that conveys feelings of love for God and neighbor, and everyday art that conveys the simplest feelings common to all people.
The main difference between the art of our time and that of the past lies in the fact that the art of our time, that is, Christian art, based on a religious consciousness that requires the unity of people, excludes from the realm of art that is good in content everything that conveys exceptional feelings that do not unite , and separating people, classifying such art as bad art in content, but, on the contrary, includes in the area of ​​​​good art in content a department that was not previously recognized as worthy of highlighting and respecting the art of the world, which conveys, although the most insignificant, simple feelings, but such that accessible to all people without exception and which therefore unite them.
Such art cannot but be recognized as good in our time because it achieves the very goal that the religious Christian consciousness of our time sets for humanity.
Christian art either evokes in people those feelings which, through love for God and neighbor, draw them towards greater and greater unity, make them ready and capable of such unity, or it evokes in them those feelings which show them what they already have. united by the unity of the joys and sorrows of life. And therefore, the Christian art of our time can be and is of two kinds: 1) art that conveys feelings arising from the religious consciousness of a person’s position in the world in relation to God and neighbor, religious art, and 2) art that conveys the simplest everyday feelings, those that are accessible to all people of the whole world - the art of the world. Only these two kinds of art can be considered good art in our time.
The first kind of religious art, which conveys both positive feelings of love for God and neighbor, and negative ones - indignation, horror at the violation of love, manifests itself mainly in the form of a word and partly in painting and sculpture; the second kind - world art, conveying feelings accessible to everyone, is manifested in the word, and in painting, and in sculpture, and in dances, and in architecture, and mainly in music.
If I were required to indicate in the new art examples for each of these types of art, then as examples of the highest religious art arising from love for God and neighbor, in the field of literature, I would point to Schiller's "Robbers"; of the newest - on "Les pauvres gens" by V. Hugo and his "Miserables" ["Poor people" by V. Hugo and his "Les Miserables" (fr.)], on novels, stories, novels by Dickens: "Tale of two cities" , "Chimes" ["The Story of Two Cities", "The Bells" (English)], etc., on "Uncle Tom's Cabin", on Dostoevsky, mainly his "Dead House", on George Eliot's "Adam Bede".
In the painting of modern times, there are almost no works of this kind, which directly convey Christian feelings of love for God and neighbor, oddly enough, especially among famous painters. There are gospel pictures, and there are a lot of them, but they all convey a historical event with great wealth of details, but they do not and cannot convey that religious feeling that the authors do not have. There are many paintings depicting the personal feelings of various people, but there are very few paintings that convey the exploits of selflessness, Christian love, and then mainly among little-known painters and not in finished paintings, but most often in drawings. Such is Kramskoy's drawing, worth many of his paintings, depicting a living room with a balcony, past which the returning troops solemnly pass. On the balcony there is a nurse with a child and a boy. They admire the procession of troops. And the mother, covering her face with a handkerchief, sobbing, clung to the back of the sofa. Such is the Langley picture I mentioned; such is the picture depicting a lifeboat rushing to the rescue of a dying steamer in a strong storm, by the French painter Morlon. There are still paintings approaching this kind, depicting the worker with respect and love. Such are Millet's paintings, especially his drawing of a resting digger; in the same genus, the paintings of Jules Breton, Lermitte, Defregger, and others. Samples in the field of painting of works that cause indignation, horror before the violation of love for God and neighbor, can serve as a picture of Ge - court, a picture of Liezen Mayer "a - the signature of a death sentence. There are very few paintings of this kind either. Concerns about technique and beauty mostly obscure the feeling. For example, the painting "Pollice verso" [Here: "Finish him" (lat.)] Jerome does not so much express a feeling of horror before what is happening, but a fascination with beauty spectacle.
In the new art of the upper classes, it is even more difficult to point to examples of the second kind, good worldly art, especially in verbal art and music. If there are works that, by their inner content, like Don Quixote, Molière's comedies, like Dickens' Copperfield and The Pickwick Club, stories by Gogol, Pushkin, or some things by Maupassant, could be attributed to this genus, then these things and by the exclusivity of the transmitted feelings, and by the excess of special details of time and place, and, most importantly, by the poverty of the content, in comparison with the samples of world ancient art, such as the story of Joseph the Beautiful, for the most part are accessible only to people of their people and even their own circle. The fact that Joseph's brothers, jealous of his father, sold him to merchants; that the wife of Pentefrieva wants to seduce a young man, that a young man reaches a higher position, pities his brothers, his beloved Benjamin, and everything else - all these feelings are available to a Russian peasant, and a Chinese, and an African, and a child, and an old, and educated, and uneducated; and all this is written so restrainedly, without unnecessary details, that the story can be transferred to any other medium you want, and it will be just as understandable and touching for everyone. But such are not the feelings of Don Quixote or the heroes of Molière (although Molière is perhaps the most universal and therefore a fine artist of the new art), and even more so the feelings of Pickwick and his friends. These feelings are very exclusive, not universal, and therefore, in order to make them contagious, the authors furnished them with abundant details of time and place. The abundance of these details makes these stories even more exceptional, incomprehensible to all people living outside the environment that the author describes.
In the story of Joseph, it was not necessary to describe in detail, as they do now, the bloody clothes of Joseph, and the dwelling and clothes of Jacob, and the posture and outfit of Pentefrieva's wife, how she, adjusting the bracelet on her left hand, said: "Come in to me," and etc., because the content of feeling in this story is so strong that all the details, except for the most necessary ones, such as, for example, the fact that Joseph went into another room to cry - that all these details are superfluous and would only interfere to convey a feeling, and therefore this story is accessible to all people, touches people of all nations, classes, ages, has come down to us and will live for another millennium. But take away the details from the best novels of our time, and what remains?
So in the new verbal art it is impossible to point to works that fully meet the requirements of universality. Even those that exist are corrupted for the most part by what is called realism, which is more accurately called provincialism in art.

Exercise 1.

"Art in the system of culture"

1. Introduction.

2. Art as a specific form of reflection of reality

3. Classification of the arts

5. The main stylistic trends in the artistic culture of the late XIX - XX centuries

6. Modern trends and style features in artistic culture

7. References

Introduction

Art is a form of culture associated with the ability of the subject to the aesthetic, practical and spiritual development of the world; a special side of social consciousness and human activity, which is a reflection of reality in artistic images; one of the most important ways of aesthetic understanding of objective reality, its reproduction in a figurative and symbolic way, relying on the resources of creative imagination; a specific means of holistic self-affirmation by a person of his essence, a way of forming the "human" in a person.

Characteristic features of art: it serves as a powerful means of communication between people; associated with experiences and emotions; presupposes predominantly sensory perception and certainly subjective perception-vision of reality; it is imaginative and creative.

Social functions of art.

Cognitive (epistemological) function. Reflecting reality, art is one of the ways of understanding the spiritual world of people, the psychology of classes, nations, individuals and social relations. The specificity of this function of art lies in the appeal to the inner world of a person, the desire to penetrate into the sphere of innermost spirituality and moral motives of the individual.

The axiological function of art is to assess its impact on a person in the context of defining ideals (or denying certain paradigms), that is, generalized ideas about the perfection of spiritual development, about that normative model, the orientation towards which and the desire for which is set by the artist as a representative of society.

communicative function. Summarizing and concentrating in itself the diverse experience of the life of people from different eras, countries and generations, expressing their feelings, taste, ideal, views of the world, their worldview and worldview, art is one of the universal means of communication, communication between people, enriching the spiritual world of an individual the experience of all mankind. Classical works unite cultures and eras, pushing the horizons of the human worldview. “Art, any art,” wrote L. N. Tolstoy, “in itself has the property of connecting people. Any art does what people perceive the feeling conveyed by the artist and, secondly, with all people who receive the same impression ".

The hedonistic function lies in the fact that genuine art brings pleasure to people, inspires them.

aesthetic function. By its nature, art is the highest form of mastering the world "according to the laws of beauty." It, in fact, arose as a reflection of reality in its aesthetic originality. Expressing the aesthetic consciousness and impact on people, forming an aesthetic worldview, and through it the entire spiritual world of the individual.

heuristic function. The creation of a work of art is an experience of creativity - the concentration of the creative forces of a person, his fantasy and imagination, the culture of feelings and the height of ideals, the depth of thought and skill. The development of artistic values ​​is also a creative activity. Art itself carries an amazing ability to awaken the thoughts and feelings inherent in a work of art, and the very ability to create in a universal manifestation. The impact of art does not disappear with the cessation of direct contact with a work of art: productive emotional and mental energy is protected, as it were, "in reserve", enters into a stable basis of personality.

educational function. The whole system of human relations to the world is expressed in art - the norms and ideals of freedom, truths, goodness, justice and beauty. A holistic, active perception of a work of art by the viewer is co-creation, it acts as a way of the intellectual and emotional spheres of consciousness in their harmonious interaction. This is the purpose of the educational and praxeological (activity) role of art.

The laws of the functioning of art include the following features: the development of art is not progressive, it goes, as it were, in jolts; works of art always express the subjective vision of the world by the artist and have a subjective assessment on the part of the reader, viewer, listener; artistic masterpieces are timeless and relatively independent of changing group and national tastes; art is democratic (it affects people regardless of their education and intellect, does not recognize any social barriers); genuine art, as a rule, is humanistically oriented; interplay of tradition and innovation.

Thus, art is a specific type of spiritual activity of people, which is characterized by a creative, sensual perception of the surrounding world in artistic and figurative forms.

Cognitive (epistemological) function. Reflecting reality, art is one of the ways of understanding the spiritual world of people, the psychology of classes, nations, individuals and social relations. The specificity of this function of art lies in the appeal to the inner world of a person, the desire to penetrate into the sphere of innermost spirituality and moral motives of the individual.

Axiological function of art consists in assessing its impact on a person in the context of defining ideals (or denying certain paradigms), that is, generalized ideas about the perfection of spiritual development, about that normative model, the orientation towards which and the desire for which is set by the artist as a representative of society.

communicative function. Summarizing and concentrating in itself the diverse experience of the life of people from different eras, countries and generations, expressing their feelings, taste, ideal, views of the world, their worldview and worldview, art is one of the universal means of communication, communication between people, enriching the spiritual world of an individual the experience of all mankind. Classical works unite cultures and eras, pushing the horizons of the human worldview. “Art, any art,” wrote L. N. Tolstoy, “in itself has the property of uniting people. All art does what people perceive the feeling conveyed by the artist and, secondly, with all people who receive the same impression.

hedonic function lies in the fact that genuine art brings people pleasure (not hiding evil), spiritualizes them.

aesthetic function. By its nature, art is the highest form of mastering the world "according to the laws of beauty." It, in fact, arose as a reflection of reality in its aesthetic originality. Expressing the aesthetic consciousness and impact on people, forming an aesthetic worldview, and through it the entire spiritual world of the individual.

heuristic function. The creation of a work of art is an experience of creativity - the concentration of the creative forces of a person, his fantasy and imagination, the culture of feelings and the height of ideals, the depth of thought and skill. The development of artistic values ​​is also a creative activity. Art itself carries an amazing ability to awaken the thoughts and feelings inherent in a work of art, and the very ability to create in a universal manifestation. The impact of art does not disappear with the cessation of direct contact with a work of art: productive emotional and mental energy is protected, as it were, “in reserve”, enters into a stable basis of personality.

educational function. The whole system of human relations to the world is expressed in art - the norms and ideals of freedom, truths, goodness, justice and beauty. A holistic, active perception of a work of art by the viewer is co-creation, it acts as a way of the intellectual and emotional spheres of consciousness in their harmonious interaction. This is the purpose of the educational and praxeological (activity) role of art.

To the laws of the functioning of art include such features: the development of art is not progressive in nature, it goes, as it were, in jolts; works of art always express the subjective vision of the world by the artist and have a subjective assessment on the part of the reader, viewer, listener; artistic masterpieces are timeless and relatively independent of changing group and national tastes; art is democratic (it affects people regardless of their education and intellect, does not recognize any social barriers); genuine art, as a rule, is humanistically oriented; interplay of tradition and innovation.

Thus, art is a specific type of spiritual activity of people, which is characterized by a creative, sensual perception of the surrounding world in artistic and figurative forms.

In order to accurately define art, it is necessary, first of all, to stop looking at it as a means of enjoyment, and consider art as one of the conditions of human life. Considering art in this way, we cannot fail to see that art is one of the means of communication between people.

What every work of art does is that the perceiver enters into a certain kind of communication with the one who produced or is producing the art and with all those who, simultaneously with it, before or after it, perceived or will perceive the same artistic impression.

Just as the word, which conveys the thoughts and experiences of people, serves as a means of uniting people, so art also acts precisely. The peculiarity of this means of communication, which distinguishes it from communication by means of a word, lies in the fact that with a word one person conveys his thoughts to another, while with art people convey their feelings to each other.

The activity of art is based on the fact that a person, perceiving by hearing or seeing the expression of the feeling of another person, is able to experience the same feeling experienced by a person expressing his feeling.

The simplest example: a person laughs and the other person becomes happy; cries to a person who hears this cry, it becomes sad; a person gets excited, irritated, and the other, looking at him, comes into the same state. A person expresses cheerfulness, determination, or, on the contrary, despondency, calmness, with his movements, sounds of his voice, and this mood is transmitted to others. A person suffers, expressing his suffering with groans and writhings, and this suffering is transmitted to others; a person expresses his feeling of admiration, reverence, fear, respect for known objects, persons, phenomena, and other people become infected, experience the same feelings of admiration, reverence, fear, respect for the same objects, persons, phenomena.

It is on this ability of people to be infected by the feelings of other people that the activity of art is based.

If a person infects another and others directly by his appearance or the sounds he makes at the very moment he experiences the feeling, makes another person yawn when he himself yawns, or laugh or cry when he himself laughs or cries at something, or to suffer when oneself suffers, then this is not yet an art.

Art begins when a person, in order to convey to other people the feeling he has experienced, again calls it into himself and expresses it with known external signs.

Feelings, the most diverse, very strong and very weak, very significant and very insignificant, very bad and very good, as long as they infect the reader, viewer, listener, constitute an object of art. The feeling of self-denial and submission to fate or god, conveyed by the drama; or the delight of lovers, described in the novel; or the feeling of voluptuousness depicted in the picture; or vivacity conveyed by a solemn march in music; or the fun caused by dancing; or comedy caused by a funny anecdote; or the feeling of silence conveyed by an evening landscape or a soothing song, all this is art.

As soon as viewers, listeners are infected with the same feeling that the writer experienced, this is art.

To evoke in oneself a feeling once experienced and, having evoked it in oneself, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, images expressed in words, to convey this feeling so that others experience the same feeling, this is the activity of art. Art is a human activity, consisting in the fact that one person consciously transmits to others the feelings he experiences through known external signs, while other people become infected with these feelings and experience them.

Art is not, as metaphysicians say, a manifestation of some mysterious idea, beauty, God; it is not, as aesthetic physiologists say, a game in which a person releases an excess of accumulated energy; is not a manifestation of emotions by external signs; is not the production of pleasant objects, the main thing is not pleasure, but is necessary for life and for the movement towards the good of an individual person and humanity, a means of communication between people, uniting them in the same feelings.

If people did not have the ability to perceive all those thoughts transmitted by words that were rethought by people who lived before, and to transmit their thoughts to others, people would be like animals ...

If there were no other ability of a person to be infected by art, people would hardly not have been even wilder and, most importantly, scattered and hostile.

And therefore the activity of art is a very important activity, just as important as the activity of speech, and just as widespread.

Evaluation of the dignity of art, that is, the feelings that it conveys, depends on people's understanding of the meaning of life, on what they see as good and what is evil in life. The good and the bad of life are determined by what are called religions.

Humanity is constantly moving from the lower, more particular and less clear to the higher, more general and clearer understanding of life. And as in any movement, in this movement there are advanced people: there are people who understand the meaning of life more clearly than others, and of all these advanced people, there is always one, more vividly, accessible, strongly expressed this meaning of life in word and life. The expression by this person of this meaning of life, together with those traditions and rituals that usually develop around the memory of this person, is called religion. Religions are indicators of that higher understanding of life, accessible at a given time and in a given society to the best advanced people, to which all other people of this society inevitably and invariably approach. And therefore only religions have always served and serve as the basis for assessing the feelings of people. If feelings bring people closer to the ideal that religion indicates, agree with it, do not contradict it, they are good; if they move away from it, do not agree with it, contradict it, they are bad.

Always, at all times and in every human society, there is a religious consciousness common to all people of this society of what is good and what is bad, and it is this religious consciousness that determines the dignity of the feelings conveyed by art. So it was with all peoples: the Greeks, the Jews, the Hindus, the Egyptians, the Chinese; so it was with the advent of Christianity.

Great objects of art are great only because they are accessible and understandable to everyone. The story of Joseph, translated into Chinese, touches the Chinese. The story of Sakiya Muni touches us. The same are buildings, paintings, statues, music. And therefore, if art does not touch, then one cannot say that this comes from a misunderstanding by the viewer and listener, but one can and should conclude from this only that this is either bad art, or not art at all.

Art differs in this from rational activity, which requires preparation and a certain sequence of knowledge (so that one cannot teach trigonometry to a person who does not know geometry), that art affects people regardless of their degree of development and education, that the beauty of pictures, sounds, images infects every person, at whatever stage of development he may be.

The point of art is precisely to make understandable and accessible what could be incomprehensible and inaccessible in the form of reasoning. Usually, when receiving a truly artistic impression, it seems to the recipient that he already knew this before, but he just did not know how to express it.

What defines good and bad art in terms of content?

Art, together with speech, is one of the tools of communication, and therefore of progress, that is, the movement forward of mankind towards perfection. Speech makes it possible for people of the last living generations to know everything that previous generations and the best advanced people of our time have learned by experience and reflection; art makes it possible for people of the last living generations to experience all those feelings that people experienced before them and are currently experiencing the best advanced people. And just as the evolution of knowledge takes place, that is, more true, necessary knowledge displaces and replaces erroneous and unnecessary knowledge, so exactly does the evolution of feelings take place through art, displacing lower feelings, less good and less necessary for the good of people, more kind, more necessary. For this good.

The art of our time and our circle has become a harlot. And this comparison is true to the smallest detail. It is just as not limited by time, just as always decorated, just as always corrupt, just as tempting and destructive.

A real work of art can appear in the soul of the artist only occasionally, as the fruit of a previous life, just like the conception of a child by a mother. Counterfeit art is produced by masters, artisans non-stop, if only there were consumers.

True art does not need decorations, like a wife of a loving husband. Counterfeit art, like a prostitute, must always be embellished.

The reason for the manifestation of real art is an inner need to express the accumulated feeling, as for a mother the reason for sexual conception is love. The cause of counterfeit art is self-interest, just like prostitution.

The consequence of true art is the introduction of a new feeling into everyday life, as the consequence of a wife's love is the birth of a new man into life. The consequence of counterfeit art is the corruption of man, the insatiability of pleasures, the weakening of man's spiritual powers.

This is what people of our time and circle must understand in order to get rid of the dirty stream of this depraved, prodigal art that floods us.

From notebooks, diaries, letters and draft editions.

<...>Aesthetic and ethical two arms of the same lever: as one side lengthens and becomes lighter, the other side shortens and becomes heavier. As soon as a person loses his moral sense, he becomes especially sensitive to the aesthetic.

<...>As soon as art ceases to be the art of the whole people and becomes the art of a small class of rich people, it ceases to be a necessary and important matter, but becomes empty fun.

(Tolstoy L.N. Literature, art. M., 1978)