EDITORIAL
© 2001 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 1–2, 2001 1
On the Need for More Rigorous Thinking
about the Laws of Form
Vague terminology, lack of basic definitions—these are the foremost defects
of art criticism. Music and architecture fare better,...
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EDITORIAL
© 2001 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 1–2, 2001 1
On the Need for More Rigorous Thinking
about the Laws of Form
Vague terminology, lack of basic definitions—these are the foremost defects
of art criticism. Music and architecture fare better, but in most writing on the visual arts,
waffle and muddle add up to total irresponsibility—a situation that suits some artists and
critics just fine, but deprives both of objective criteria.
Here in Leonardo, which has since its founding struggled to encourage a more “scientific”
approach to art, I want to make the attempt—for my own sake and for that of colleagues
whose help I would like to enlist—to define some basic laws binding on the maker of pictures and essential to the understanding of picture-making. First, though, it must be clearly
stated that these laws do not exist in isolation but coexist and struggle in such a way that one
law will appear to dominate a given space, thereby subordinating others. Essentially, however,
al
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