What is Art by Clutton Brock :: Visual Arts Paintings Art

What is Art by Clutton BrockThe essay what is cunning is taken form the volume essays on life byclutton brock and was first published in the form of an article in thetimes literary supplement of january 1924.everyone now is thinking or talk of the town about the nature of art andaesthetic experience .clutton-brock begins his essay by stating thepopular subject of discussion.This subject the nature of art and of beauty is simultaneously enigmatic as well as thrilling .the problem about the nature of artand aesthetic sense is so confusing that it is hard to pin place whatthe actual problem really is. The only thing clear about it is that itis novel and new. Art, in the past was always considered inferior towhat it reflected. Tolstoy in his book what is art? ,even thoughhe himself saw the importance of art reduced art to an absurdity andvalued it in terns of other things and not for it self. That art hadnot the counterbalance to exist for itself ,that it should be judged and valuedn ot for itself but for other subsidary effects whether political,social, or moral. Such a predilection reduces art to nothing and thisconception is the opposite of what art truly is.Shelly in his work defense of poetry considered art to be judged bythe ethical and intellectual benefits it showered upon mankind. Jonsonspoke uncompromisingly on the nature of art. Dr jonson regretted theloss of a proposed epic by dryden because it led to the deprivation ofthe social and moral edification of mankind .what jonson meant wasthat arts function was to socially improve and morally rectify theviewer ,reader or observor of the work of art. Clutton brock opposesthis view and says on the contrary if a pieceof art is lost today itsloss would be mourned not for the values it could or would impart butrather it would be mourned for the loss of art itself.However jonson thought as he did of art because he already had preconceived otions about art and had not examined art carefully to seethe nature of it. If jonson had done so ,he would have seen that artin truth is never valued for moral or ethical or cultural values butfor itself. For Jonson himself would not have read poetry for thestated objects . had he doen so then it would have no longer beenpoetry.Ever since art evolved man has valued art for itself ,without actuallyknowing it,for men still look for reasons as to why they should value