1. Art as a means of conveying emotions (Tolstoy tradition)
- Tonje Rebecca Rosenberg
- Dec 9, 2025
- 1 min read
"The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his senses another man's expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it."
— Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art? (1898)
In other words; emotions are both contagious and teach us something about ourselves and others. Art is a medium that helps us to grasp this.
Work by: Japemiro, title: "Maybe that's what grief looks like, when no one knows about it?" https://www.byrosenberg.art/services-9
I estetikkens historie finnes en sterk tradisjon som definerer kunst som formidling av følelser. Den mest kjente representanten er Leo Tolstoj, som argumenterte for at kunstens kjerne ligger i at et menneske overfører sin indre følelsesmessige erfaring til et annet menneske gjennom et uttrykk. Art thus becomes a form of communication where the audience can experience the same feeling that the artist himself had when the work was created.
According to this approach, art is successful when it creates a shareable emotional experience, regardless of technique, style, or ideals of beauty.
This perspective is often used in humanistic aesthetics because it explains why art is experienced as meaningful and universal across time and culture.
Work by: Japemiro, title: "I wouldn't have it on the wall at home" https://www.byrosenberg.art/services-9
This means:
A work is art when it actually touches others — regardless of who made it.
In the next post we will look at perspective no. 2. Art as interpretation of the world (Modernist tradition)
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