The Split and the Structure: Twenty-Eight Essays

About this book

Rudolf Arnheims great forte is his ability to illuminate the perceptual processes that go into the making and reception of artworkspainting sculpture architecture and film. Over the years his pioneering mode of "reading" art from a unique scientific/philosophic perspective has garnered him an established and devoted audience. That audience will take pleasure in Arnheims most recent collection of essays one that covers a range of topics and includes titles such as "Outer Space and Inner Space " "What Is an Aesthetic Fact? " "As I Saw Childrens Art " "Two Ways of Being Human " "Consciousnessan Island of Images " and "From Chaos to Wholeness." The notion of structure is Arnheims guide in these explorations. Most of the essays examine the nature of structure affirmatively: how it comes about its incentives and objectives its celebration of perfection. He is interested in how artists grope for structure to shape powerful enlightening images and how a scientists search for truth is a search for structure. Writing with enviable clarity even when deploying complex arguments Arnheim makes it easy and exciting to follow him as he thinks. America is not abundantly supplied with "public intellectuals" such as Rudolf Arnheimto have his writings with us is cause for celebration. "The word structure appears for good reason in the title of this collection. . . . Structure seems to be needed as an arbiter wherever this civilization of ours is split by selfish interests and fighting for either/or decisions. The essays want to speak with the voice of reason because they want to show how the parts require the whole."