The Perfect Quote On Art To Start Your Week — From Aristotle
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
~ Aristotle, 384-322 BC
—
When I saw this quote recently, I thought how perfectly it expressed my understanding of art and creativity.
Perhaps the most apt analogy from writing is found in Japanese haiku poetry. Although based in concrete observation of the real, the haiku should nonetheless add up to a whole that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts—what is sometimes referred to as the ‘a-ha!’ moment when, to return to Aristotle, the reader realises that inner significance that is more than the concrete elements (usually in nature) that are being described.
Also something to reflect on, given on our age of incessant ‘chatter’ (what Herman Hesse, in his novel, The Glass Bead Game referred to as The Age of Feuilleism, which is now even ‘more so’ with social media) — Aristotle’s reflection on art was made almost two and a half millennia ago and is still just as relevant today.