Description

Book Synopsis
Traces the historical development of attitudes toward the arts over the past 150 years, suggesting that the present is a period of cultural liquidation, nothing less than the ending of the modern age that began with the Renaissance.

Trade Review
"When an extremely intellectual, extremely experienced, extremely wise man shares his thoughts with others, the result seizes the imagination at once. Such is the effect of these essays. . . . Barzun examines art as religion, as destroyer, as redeemer, and in relation to what he calls ‘its tempter, science,’ but never forgets the basic essential. As he says, ‘the last word on art should indeed be: mystery. But that need not stop any of us from dealing with it as if we understood more than we can.’ And how good it is to have one’s mind stretched to that understanding of ‘more.’" * Virginia Quarterly Review *

The Use and Abuse of Art

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    A Paperback by J Barzun

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      Publisher: Princeton University Press
      Publication Date: 7/1/1992 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780691018041, 978-0691018041
      ISBN10: 0691018049
      Also in:
      The arts: general topics Philosophy: aesthetics

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Traces the historical development of attitudes toward the arts over the past 150 years, suggesting that the present is a period of cultural liquidation, nothing less than the ending of the modern age that began with the Renaissance.

      Trade Review
      "When an extremely intellectual, extremely experienced, extremely wise man shares his thoughts with others, the result seizes the imagination at once. Such is the effect of these essays. . . . Barzun examines art as religion, as destroyer, as redeemer, and in relation to what he calls ‘its tempter, science,’ but never forgets the basic essential. As he says, ‘the last word on art should indeed be: mystery. But that need not stop any of us from dealing with it as if we understood more than we can.’ And how good it is to have one’s mind stretched to that understanding of ‘more.’" * Virginia Quarterly Review *

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