Art of Play - Wonder by Design

What is Art?

What is Art? - Main image
$8 $16 In stock

Category: Architecture

This profound analysis of the nature of art is the culmination of a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice, and religion. Considering and rejecting the idea that art reveals and reinvents through beauty, Tolstoy perceives the question of the nature of art to be a religious one. Ultimately, he concludes, art must be a force for good, for the progress and improvement of mankind.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Customer Reviews (4.6 / 5 · 5 reviews)

Lily ★★★★★

Finally, a book that takes art seriously as a moral question rather than just aesthetics. The way it weaves social justice into the analysis of what art reveals feels genuinely thought-provoking, not preachy. Finished it in two sittings and already want to reread the chapters on religion.

John B. ★★★★★

The way it weaves morality and social justice into the discussion of what art actually is caught me off guard—I kept flipping back to reread the polemics. It’s dense but never dry, and the argument against art as mere revelation feels genuinely fresh. I’ve already dog-eared half the pages.

Henry ★★★★★

Finally, a book that tackles the big questions of art's moral weight without getting lost in jargon. The way it weaves together social justice and aesthetics is exactly what I was hoping for.