"One of the distinguishing characteristics of a work of art is that it serves no practical, material end, but is an end in itself; it serves no purpose other than contemplation - and the pleasure of that contemplation is so intense, so deeply personal that a man experiences it as a self-sufficient, self-justifying primary and, often, resists or resents any suggestion to analyze it: the suggestion, to him, has the quality of an attack on his identity, on his deepest, essential self. No human emotion can be causeless, nor can so intense an emotion be causeless, irreducible and unrelated to the source of emotions (and of values): to the needs of a living entity's survival. Art does have a purpose and does serve a human need; only it is not a material need, but a need of man's consciousness. Art is inextricably tied to man's survival-not to his physical survival, but to that on which his physical survival depends: to the preservation and survival of his consciousness." Ayn Rand, from The Romantic Manifesto |
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Michelangelo: Dying Slave 1516 | Michelangelo: David 1504 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Example of two dramatically different themes and emotional effects, from the same artist. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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This website is a rallying place, for all those who partake in the emotional intensity that great artworks offer. It presents a realistic, idealistic, objective theory of the arts, taking as its founding ideas the radical art theory of Ayn Rand: -- the Objectivist esthetics.
This site is the home of that contingent of "freedom fighters of the mind" who are battling to clarify and present the detailed truth -- philosophically, psychologically, scientifically -- about how the arts provide sustenance for the soul. [click HERE for more details] It provides information and resources on:
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Articles & Essays & Books | Links | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Esthetics Esthetics Art Appreciation and Understanding - Kindle Book - 2017 Art in One Lesson: Understanding and Appreciating the Arts Amazon Link for purchase: Kindle link Architecture - Kindle Book - 2018 Tidings of Joy & Comfort: Romanticism & Realism in Architecture Amazon Link for purchase: Kindle link Psychology of Art Objectivist Psychology: Sense-of-Life Music On the Evolutionary Neuropsychology of Music by Marsha Enright HTML / PDF" Architecture An Introduction to Organic Architecture via the Obituary of Frank Lloyd Wright by William Jordy HTML / PDF" Art and Psychology If Emotions Are Not Tools of Cognition, What are They? by Marsha Enright PDF" Sculpture Metaphysics in Marble by Mary Ann Sures, 1969 The Objectivist. Link at Ayn Rand Institute site: Sculpture Novels (writing about novels) Ayn Rand: --Basic Principles of Literature, 1968 (essay published in The Romantic Manifesto) --The Art of Fiction, 1958 (published 2000) Poetry What is Poetry? by John Enright III PDF" Plays Discovering Great Plays: As Literature and as Philosophy by Leonard Peikoff. Kindle link Cinema Coming. Opera Coming. Ballet Coming. |
Ayn Rand:
Aristotle:
George Lansing Raymond (an Aristotelian esthetician, who provides a rational perspective on the arts):
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Contact Us: admin (at) artgrok (dot) org | |||||||||||||||||||||