Abstract

In the first decade of this century a British writer, Clive Bell, wrote Art, an attempt to address what he designated as the central problem in aesthetics: finding one quality common to all works of art. Bell called this essential quality "significant form," meaning the combination of lines, colors and forms or relations of forms which arouse "aesthetic emotion." This became the basis of his aesthetic hypothesis, and in Art he also presented a metaphysical hypothesis suggesting that significant form reveals the ultimate reality behind the appearance of phenomena. ;In the early part of the twentieth century, the ideas espoused by Bells' Bloomsbury friends such as Roger Fry, and the philosopher G. E. Moore's theory of value, played an important role in the formulation of his hypotheses in Art. Bell and Fry were partial to the art of France and tried to shift English sensibilities toward a new vision centering on Post-Impressionism. It was in the painting of Cezanne that Bell perceived a new emphasis on form and the revelation of the essentiality of objects. Together with Fry, Bell brought Cezanne's paintings to England in two major exhibits at the Grafton Gallery in 1910 and 1912. Chapter One describes the cultural background that set the tone for the changes Bell hoped would revitalize the British artworld following the nineteenth century reliance on accurate representation. Cezanne's influence on English artists is discussed in Chapter Four. ;Clive Bell's theories are a complex integration of formalism and certain romantic tendencies often associated with metaphysical idealism. His ideas are closely related to those of the German Idealist, Immanuel Kant, and to the development of the concept of artistic autonomy in German aesthetics. The progress of the art for art's sake movement in French art criticism is also germane to Bell's theories. Chapter Two presents this philosophical background that is assimilated into Bell's thinking in Art. ;According to Bell, significant form is the expression of an artist's emotional awareness of the spiritual tenor of an age. From this evolved the idea of an emotion peculiar to artistic experience, separate from the ordinary emotions of life. Chapter Three examines the criticism which has been written on these ideas and the general subjective basis of his aesthetic. ;In Chapter Five, more recent formalist theories are looked at in relation to Bell's earlier version. It is also suggested that his thinking shares much with that of many important artists in this century, though he never submitted his theories as a justification for non-iconic art as he could have. His importance lies in what he offered about the essential nature of the aesthetic experience seen through the painting of Cezanne