The absence of any one of these conditions excludes a work form the category of art and relegates it to that of art's counterfeits. If the work does not transmit the artist's peculiarity of feeling and is therefore not individual, if it is unintelligibly expressed, or if it has not proceeded from the author's inner need for expression - it is not a work of art. If all these conditions are present, even in the smallest degree, then the work, even if a weak one, is yet a work of art.
—Leo Tolstoy, "What Is Art?" (translation by Alymer Maude, 1899)
2 comments:
Bad poetry is poetry; bad art is art. Any definition that denies that, as this one does, is nonsense. There is no coherent way to think about art from such a perspective, which mixes up quality and category.
"All bad poetry is sincere" --Oscar Wilde
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