“Art can only be truly art by presenting an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life.”

Part II, Things and Thoughts of Europe, p. 198.
At Home And Abroad (1856)

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 can only be truly art by presenting an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life." by Margaret Fuller?
Margaret Fuller photo
Margaret Fuller 116
American feminist, poet, author, and activist 1810–1850

Related quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Art is the supreme task and the truly metaphysical activity in this life…”

Diesen Ernsthaften diene zur Belehrung, dass ich von der Kunst als der höchsten Aufgabe und der eigentlich metaphysischen Thätigkeit dieses Lebens im Sinne des Mannes überzeugt bin, dem ich hier, als meinem erhabenen Vorkämpfer auf dieser Bahn, diese Schrift gewidmet haben will.
"Preface to Richard Wagner", p. 13
The Birth of Tragedy (1872)

Piet Mondrian photo
Joseph Kosuth photo

“The new Christian ideal of life did not at first alter the outward forms of art, but did alter its social function.”

Arnold Hauser (1892–1978) Hungarian art historian

The Social History of Art, Volume I. From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages, 1999, Chapter IV. The Middle Ages

Piet Mondrian photo
Daniel Buren photo
Aristotle photo

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Source: Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest PHilosophers (1926), reprinted in Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, 1991, ISBN 0-671-73916-6], Ch. II: Aristotle and Greek Science; part VI: Psychology and the Nature of Art: "Artistic creation, says Aristotle, springs from the formative impulse and the craving for emotional expression. Essentially the form of art is an imitation of reality; it holds the mirror up to nature. There is in man a pleasure in imitation, apparently missing in lower animals. Yet the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance; for this, and not the external mannerism and detail, is their reality.

“There's more to life than just the things that can be explained by encyclopedias and facts. Facts alone are not adequate.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Penguins and Golden Calves (2003)

Oscar Wilde photo

“Only a distinctive individual can produce great art. Great art is synonymous with anonymous art.”

Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) Austrian sculptor (23 April 1907, Vienna – 28 August 1975, Vienna)

Source: The Human Form: Sculpture, Prints, and Drawings, 1977, p. 73.

Related topics