At first it might seem that the work is confined to a comprehensive and destructive criticism of all the fine arts of which the Nineteenth Century was proud, culminating in a plea for a new truly humane art of the future. But Tolstoy’s polemic is not limited to an attack on the arts in Russia, as he makes clear, since Russia has adopted these arts (and the aesthetic theories accompanying them) in their entirety from modern Europe. The work might be described as a polemic against all current theories and forms of art in relation to Russia. He wrote the work, he tells us, late in his life after returning to it repeatedly, perfecting and correcting it like a work of art born of long labors, finally deciding to publish it in as perfect a form as he could accomplish. Tolstoy’s polemical tract What is Art? took him more than fifteen years to write and contains his mature reflections on the place of art and science in human life.
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