Art as Experience [Paperback]

Johy Dewey (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 6, 1959

Based on John Dewey's lectures on esthetics, delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience has grown to be considered internationally as the most distinguished work ever written by an American on the formal structure and characteristic effects of all the arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and literature.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Dewey (1859-1952), philosopher, psychologist, and educator, is widely credited as the most influential thinker on education in the twentieth century. He taught philosophy at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago , and Columbia University. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (March 6, 1959)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399500251
• ISBN-13: 978-0399500251
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Theorizing On Art May 4, 2003

By Zettel

Format:Paperback

As a reviewer below stated, this is a very interesting book that treats art as a means of recapturing the experience of life and trasmitting that experience to the audience. He captures a number of concepts established earlier by Leo Tolstoy in his "What is Art?" and delves deeper into them, expounding on their more practical and less esoteric uses.

Dewey, however, certainly earns his title as a pragmatist. His wording is complicated and, at times, careful. It is difficult to pin specific sayings or doctrines to him. However, once the task is completed, he has a great deal of important things to say about art and artistic experience.

47 of 57 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the great books on art theory. April 6, 2000

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

Although somewhat dated in that what Dewey novelly stated long ago, we now accept as obvious, this is a great book to gain an understanding of art both as a producer and as a spectator.

The central theme is that life is an experience, and that the goal of art is to recapture that experience. Hence, a painting of a flower is only valuable in the way that it captures the essence of a flower, or the experience of viewing a flower. The viewing of a painting must also provide some of the experience of making that painting ( its process ).

If you can manage to finish the book ( the style is a bit archaic ), the experience is worth the effort.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Seminal Analysis of Aesthetic Theory November 19, 2011

By S. Pactor VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

John Dewey was an American philosopher of the late 19th and 20th century best known for his espousal of a "pragmatic" philosophy and progressive political ideas, but he also wrote about Art. Art as Experience is not a book per se, but rather a rewriting of a series of lectures he gave on the "philosophy of art" at Harvard in 1931.

Dewey's pragmatic philosophy emphasizing social relations between humans was hugely influential in social sciences like sociology, where he clearly inspired writers like Erving Goffman and anthropology (see Roy Rappaport) His influence has been less notable in the field of aesthetics and art theory, and that's a shame, because in my mind, Art as Experience is the best book about the role of Art in human experience ever written.

Art as Experience starts from the observation that there can be no Art without an Audience- the two are intertwined because humans are social creatures and none of us exist in isolation. This statement about the nature of Art stands in direct contradiction to the two main schools of art philosophy: Classicism, which holds that Beauty is an objective truth that exists outside the experience of any single person and Romanticism, which postulates that the Artist stands alone in the world, without reference to his human environment.

Much of the argument of Art as Experience takes the form of the language philosophy strategy of being extremely precise about the terms being used. This gives the actual text of Art as Experience a tedious feel, even as the ideas expressed dance and sparkle with the light of discovery. Dewey works his way through defining, having an experience, the act of expression, the expressive object, substance and form, etc. I won't lie- it's dry. Boring even....

BUT, it's a book that every art critic, blogger, etc should be forced- AT GUN POINT- to read. That's because to read Dewey is to understand that Artists and Critics are on the same side- they both care and appreciate art and artistic products, and they both want to share their love/interest in art with a larger audience.

This idea of critics attacking Artists for some real or perceived "failure" is revealed by Dewey to actually be a failure of the critic- for failing to understand that his or her own experience is intruding on their understanding of the subject of their criticism. It's a wonder to be that Dewey's Art as Experience isn't more commonly read and loved by Artists and Art critics, but I suppose he only has himself to blame- that man was not a prose stylist.

I would say that if you were going to read a single book on the subject of the "Philosophy of Art" it would be this book- and that there isn't another book you need to read after this one. Particularly, while reading Art As Experience I thought of conversations I had with my friend/business partner- Brandon Welchez of the Crocodiles. Brandon often espoused the opinion- common to Artists that "Writing about music is like dancing about Architecture- i.e. pointless" and my response was basically, "Um..." but now I would reply that when a critic really understand the purpose of writing about art- to help clarify, illuminate and publicize worthy artists- and sharing one's interest in a specific art and artists with the wider world- art criticism can help to create an appreciative audience for a specific artist or art product where none existed before. Read more ›

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental book on esthetics June 7, 2008

By Patrick Singleton

Format:Paperback

Dewey discusses making art and viewing art are not unique activities -- that discipline, engagement and commitment are basic to art in the same way they are basic to other work.

The book undermines the notion that Art is somehow arcane and academic. It's not, the book suggests. It takes work to make art, it takes work to appreciate it, but it is a democratic sort of work, and good art stands up, even when it is not cosseted in museums or galleries.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How you think about life gives shape to the way you see the world June 13, 2010

By Bryce R. Cassin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Dewey is the inspiration behind my PhD so as an owner of his collected works in print and electronic form I can offer a few words on Art as Experience. The 1934 first edition is a handsome object in itself. Written by a mature Dewey, this book is about art in its broadest sense, and experience in its particular sense as our primary way of engaging the world. It is a book about the wonder of experiencing life in context. And that is what makes it as relevant today as it was in 1934 - both eras are marked by significant socio-cultural development, received at such a pace it is hard to keep pace or pause to reflect. When was the last time you stopped think about the meaning of experiences in your life? Have you ever thought of yourself and the people near you as the shape and form of expression in this world?

This book by Dewey will take you to many places well worth travelling to in print and in person. Read it alongside Wayne Booth's 'Writing as Thinking: Thinking as Writing' The Harper and Row Rhetoric: Writing as Thinking, Thinking as Writing and let Dewey, through his journey with Vernon Lee's ideas on page 101-102, in the chapter entitled 'The Expressive Object' inspire you to explore the rich writing of Violet Paget (aka Vernon Lee, The Beautiful). The high point of the book is the discussion of empathy. Here is Dewey quoting Lee, which is in tune with the sense Dewey is talking about in his book com/The-Beautiful-Introduction-Psychological-Aesthetics/dp/1440099332">The Beautiful: An Introduction to Psychological Aesthetics (Classic Reprint):

"The various and variously combined dramas enacted by the lines and curves and angles take place not in the marble or pigment embodying the contemplated shapes, but solely in ourselves..." Read more ›