What Is Art?

Kandinsky's manifesto on abstraction and the inner life of art. He explains how color and form speak directly to the soul, in the book that opened the door to abstract painting.

Wassily Kandinsky

The essay that introduced the idea of significant form: what moves us in a painting is the arrangement of lines and colors, not the story it tells. A key text of modern art criticism.

Clive Bell

Essays by the critic who introduced Cézanne and the Post-Impressionists to the English-speaking world. Fry writes on aesthetics, art history and non-Western art, with 40 illustrations.

Roger Fry

Essays on how artists, performers and teachers use writing to create, reflect and critique their work. Useful for anyone writing art criticism, artist statements or academic papers on the visual and performing arts.

Various Authors