The Meaning of Art

In this classical study of the history of Art History Read interweaves definitions of fundamental conceptions with descriptions of works of art. He strives to give us an understanding of the difference between different forms of Art and Beauty. He writes to help us understand fundamental concepts such as Form and Expression, Pattern, Empathy, Abstract Art, Humanistic Art., Line, Tone,Color and Form. But the bulk of the book is a history of Western art , from Primitive Art via the major figures of Western Art to the moderns Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. In the third section of the work he considers, subjects such as ' the Artist's point- of-view , Tolstoy and Wordsworth, Art and Society, The will- to-form . He concludes with a small chapter 'The ultimate values'. The book's illustrations are excellent. In his concluding paragraph Read states his credo: "The ultimate values of art transcend the individual and his time and circumstance. They express an ideal proportion or harmony which the artist can grasp only in virtue of his intuitive powers. In expressing his intuition the artist willuse materials placed in his hands by the circumstances of histime: at one period he will scratch on the walls ofhis cave, at another he will build or decorate a temple or cathedral, at another he will paint a canvas for a limited circle ofconnoisseurs. The true artist is indifferent to the materials and conditions imposed upon him. He accepts any conditions, so long as they can be used to express his will-to- form. Then in the wider mutations ofhistory his efforts are magnified, or diminished, taken up or dismissed, by forces which he cannot predict, and which have very little to do with the values of which he is the exponent.It is his faith that those values are nevertheless among the eternal attributes of humanity."