Aesthetics and Art Theory. An Historical Introduction by Harold Osborne (review)

Books 175 Aesthetics and Art Theory. An Historical Introduction . Harold Osborne. Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1968. 217 pp., illus. f2.20. Reviewedby: Vic Gray* ‘The Middle Ages had no more idea of what we mean by the word art than had Greece or Egypt, which lacked the word to express it. In order that this idea could be born, it was necessary for words of art to be separated from their function .,. The most profound metamorphosis began when art had no other end than itself.’ Andre Malraux in Les Voidu Silence. An editorial adjuration to please submit this long delayed review because of the date of the book‘s publication stimulated me to reflect on the superannuation of the written word. The novel, except one of the first rank or one revived by the whim of fashion, dates both in style and content; the ageing socio-political play, except one by an Ibsen or a Shaw, fades into pointlessness and the textbook matures into dullness outmoded in its form of expression and overtaken by research. But the handbook with no pretensions to longevity, offers its back for a climbto wider and deeper readingin a sort of self immolation. In this handbook, Osborne has used a chronological format to illustrate the development of aestheticunderstandingand the shapeof hypotheses in this field today. What is Art? What is a work of art? In the labyrinth of ideas and thoughts consequent on those questions, the author is a most attentive guide. He leads us to exits of understanding and enrichment. He writes, in common with thosewho aremastersof theirchosenfield,with the clarity and discernment of the true illuminator. Light is thrown on the evolution of man’s assumptions concerning the fine arts and their purposes in society. He examines (with us) the developingconcepts and ideas of art from classical times to those prevalent today. It would be understandableif Osbornetreated aestheticsas something peculiar to Western thought but he provides us with a fair and considered appraisal of Chinese and Indian aesthetic hypotheses to give another dimension to understanding through contrast and contact. The complexitiesof Chinese art criticism are unravelled sufficientlyto show that criticism is not based on nature, asit tendstobein the Occident. Art to the Chinese reflects a perfect reality or Tao and is not concerned with depicting things as they are; a parallel with some art hypothesesin the West in the twentieth century. The difficult concept of Rasa, central to Indian aesthetic hypothesis, wherein the emotionsare embodied in the work of art and we taste or savour these to the extent of our empathy , is so elucidated to make possible a comparison withSusanneLanger’sgetsaltof emotionalsituations described in her book, Philosophy in a New Key, 3rd Ed. (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1957);paperback (NewYork: New American Library World Pub.). His penetrating discussion of Kant’s Critique o f Judgment is the pivot of his book and Osborne’s * 137WestburyRoad, WestburyonTrym,Bristol, England. development of aesthetic thought reaches a natural apogee in the Kantian codification. From here, aestheticthought is followed till the finalchapter on twentieth-century aesthetic hypothesis-a hypothesis ,in brief, in which a work of art is said to exist in its own right with its own standards and functions. Art does not exist to be bible, propaganda, broadsheet or social pamphlet and, when it is used for these functions, they are irrelevant to the qualities of a work of art. Sections on the emergence of concepts of genius, mimesis, inspiration and discussions on art activities, including the use of creative imagination, and their place in today’s aesthetics and the critical language of appreciation are included to further illuminatethe central theme: the emergence o f man the aesthete. In a society challenged by the headlong rush of technological progress and the immediate confrontation with change, we need continuous clarification, if not reassurance, for change in the arts is no less swift and confusing. A sculptureof a mound of sand, slowly gyrating bodies to the strains of ‘Underneath the Arches’ in the living sculpture of George and Gilbert or the artistic experience of a ‘happening’ tax the resources in appreciationof allexceptthe very few. Thewhirling waters of change or progress force us to grasp for hand...