Clive Bell's Essay on Art
In his essay, entitled "Art," Clive Bell proposes that there is oneelement that coheres all works of art considered great in the world."There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist;possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless.What is this quality'" In other words, Bell accepts that there must besome aesthetic standards by which to judge all works of art. However, Bellacknowledges that the body of art produced in and by the world's artists ismultifaceted in its character, depending on the era when it was produced,the artist who produced it, and the medium in which it was produced. Early on in his essay, Bell states that to define the core querybehind all of art criticism is to ask, "What quality is shared by allobjects that provoke our aesthetic emotions'" It is not enough to say thatadherence to reality or beauty is the standard, otherwise a functionalPersian bowl might be ranked above a masterpiece of fruit in a bowl paintedby Cezanne. Bell states, "only one answer seems possible - significant
Although their form might or might not delight the gazer, theintentions of those who constructed them were not to create 'artistic'standards by which the work might be judged, but to create a functionalwork to which aesthetic standards were not intended to apply. Bell's thesis is important in the field of art criticism in that itallows for different works of art to be judged by the works of art's owninternal aesthetic standards, as were pertinent to their day, age, andphilosophy of construction. The presence of small circles within larger circlesin the text of the painting may suggest eyes to the viewer, or perhapsdeveloping life. This is why, for Bell, "people who respond immediately and surely to worksof art. A child can draw circles, Bell's stereotypical critic mightreply. However, the work's significant form, namely the formal standardsit establishes for itself as a work of modern art, make this paintinggreat. "Bell defends the common gazer, in essence, who looks upon a piece of artand intuitively responds to its construction. " Thus, although the use of the term 'significant form' might on itssurface to suggest that the standards Bell judges works of art by are quitestandardized. Thesubjectivity of cultural standards, to say nothing of the subjectivity ofindividual standards in determining the aesthetics of form (for instance,what if I see my child's drawing of a circle as lovelier and more perfectthan Wassily Kadinsky's because of my own personal biases) make Bell'sthesis interesting and admirable in its intentions, if hardly perfect inits enforcement. For instance, Bell might saythat the painting by Giotto of the crucified Christ is perfect by thestandards created within the formalized text of that painting, although toapply such elongation to the more naturalistic and warm colors of apainting of Christ as an infant in the style of Michelangelo would notadhere to these formalities. For instance, to use Bell's straw man of thetypical bullheaded critic, Wassily Kadinsky's "Several Circles" would failas a work of art if judged as a representational work of, well, just aboutanything. in my judgment, [are] more enviable than men of massive intellect[who are] are often quite as incapable of talking sense about aesthetics.
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