In a message dated 6/25/09 3:32:15 PM, [email protected] writes:
> Kate, I'm working on a reply to your inquiry about "Bewty," but this > morning, I reread Worringer's 1908 essay, "Abstraction and Empathy," > and found a lot in there that we might want to mull over. > > In a very short capsule, Worringer says that the familiar art in the > Greco-Roman and Renaissance tradition of naturalistic accuracy and > fidelity was an art of "empathy," one where the viewer felt connected > to the people and scenes depicted--empathy--in contrast to other > cultural traditions that produced flat, often geometrically abstracted > images. The latter, he writes, were inspired by a fear of the natural > world, and the geometricizing and abstracting of the shapes > represented a way for people to hold the fear-inspiring world at a > distance and subordinate it. > Nice if applied to the past fifty years. > > I had read this 30+ years ago, and then reread it about 20 years ago. > Without realizing it, I think that some parts of his thesis is infused > in my own assertion that, as I've put it, "Art moralizes nature, and > Nature demoralizes art." > > Anyone interested in going a few rounds with Worringer? > I think so. KAte Sullivan > > > | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | > Michael Brady > [email protected] > http://considerthepreposition.blogspot.com/ > > > ************** Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000005)
