Ok, bad garbage in the context Berg presents.  Good garbage in the context of 
formalism stemming from Renaissance art theory.  I refer to the 'noble contour' 
and later ideas of 'significant form' and the like.  I wrote an essay on this 
topic "Can Art Be Moral Again?" in which I reminded art thinkers of the old 
fusion of artistic formalism with noble and moral aspirations or ideals as 
exemplified in the Beaux-Arts 'Style".  That moral signification of form was 
dropped when the later idea of Significant Form came into play, and it later 
became the basis for Greenberg's formalism.  In other words, formalism became 
secularized but has always retained the residual implications of the moral or 
ethical, or even the spiritual (Kandinsky). Remember the Spiritual in Abstract 
Painting exhibition of 1985?
wc



----- Original Message ----
From: saulostrow <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tue, August 21, 2012 9:05:13 AM
Subject: Re: "The role of art was nobler than mere pleasure because it  existed 
for the purpose of instruction."

good garbage or bad garbage?

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 9:40 AM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote:

> Garbage.
> wc
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: joseph berg <[email protected]>
> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]>
> Sent: Tue, August 21, 2012 4:38:35 AM
> Subject: "The role of art was nobler than mere pleasure because it
>  existed for
> the purpose of instruction."
>
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=VWedB7SA-KMC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=%22The+role
>
> +of+art+was+nobler+than+mere+pleasure+because+it+existed+for+the+purpose+of+i
>
> nstruction.%22&source=bl&ots=KfUe9jOaph&sig=JGheLlFpSlp8OuIYACOe4lq2SX4&hl=en
>
> #v=onepage&q=%22The%20role%20of%20art%20was%20nobler%20than%20mere%20pleasure
>
> %20because%20it%20existed%20for%20the%20purpose%20of%20instruction.%22&f=fals
> e
>
>


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