“Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.”

— Susanne K. Langer

Source: Feeling and Form (1953), Ch. 3, p. 40

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling." by Susanne K. Langer?

Susanne K. Langer 16

American philosopher 1895–1985

Related quotes

“As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.”

Luciano Pavarotti (1935–2007) Italian operatic tenor

Pavarotti : My World (1995)

“The square is not a subconscious form. It is the creation of intuitive reason. The face of the new art. The square is a living, regal infant. The first step of pure creation in art.”

Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) Russian and Soviet artist of polish descent

Quote in 'From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting', Kazimir Malevich, November 1916
1910 - 1920

“Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one consciously, by means of certain external symbols, conveys to others the feelings one has experienced, whereby people so infected by these feelings, also experience them.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

What is Art? (1897)

“Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees

“Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Simone Weil, The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees
Misattributed

“Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor and human creations.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Any art is a concentrated feeling of love elevated to a world view and translated into an artistic language of symbols.”

Marianne von Werefkin (1860–1938) expressionist painter

Quote from Werefkin's lecture in 1914; as quoted in M. K. ČIURLIONIS AND MARIANNE VON WEREFKIN: THEIR PATHS AND WATERSHEDS, by Laima Lauckaité; Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art, Vilnius
Werefkin gave her lecture during a regular Art Society meeting, 22 March 1914
after 1911

“The present painter can be said to work with chaos not only in the sense that he is handling the chaos of the blank picture plane, but also in that he is handling the chaos of form. In trying to go beyond the visible and the known world he is working with forms that are unknown even to him. He is therefore engaged in a true act of discovery in the creation of new forms and symbols that will have the living quality of creation.”

Barnett Newman (1905–1970) American artist

Source: 1940 - 1950, The Plasmic Image 2. 1943-1945, p. 125

“The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.”

Lewis Mumford book The City in History

Source: The City in History (1961), Ch. 18

“We want Realism's wealth of experience and Symbolism's depth of feeling. All art is a problem of balance between two opposites.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

This Business of Living (1935-1950)

“Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Susanne K. Langer 16

Related quotes

Related topics