Actual Works Of Art Research Articles

Discerning Digital from Canvas: Investigating Visual Distinction between AI-Generated Art and Actual Art among Far Eastern University’s Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts (IARFA) and Non-IARFA Students

Artificial Intelligence is one of the current generation’s inventions that has been widely used. It has helped make lives easier, especially regarding appliances and business, and it has also altered various industries, including the arts. However, this development has sparked different perspectives among artists and non-artists. This study aims to evaluate how students, both artists, and non-artists, perceive the differences between real art and artificial intelligence-generated art. For this study, a total of fifty (50) students will be gathered, consisting of twenty-five (25) non-artist students from different courses and twenty-five (25) artist students from the IARFA Institute of Far Eastern University. The participants will receive the questionnaire via Messenger. The results of this study showed that the participants could differentiate actual art from AI-generated art based on their knowledge when evaluating artworks. Additionally, it demonstrates that artist students showed more confidence in determining actual artworks from AI-generated artworks due to their knowledge. While non-artists remain skeptical in determining artworks as they base their perception on how they see art.

Organic Patinas on Small Historical Bronzes: From Mock-Ups to Actual Artworks

This paper deals with the study of organic coatings (patinas) on historical bronzes, specifically those applied on small-size statues in Renaissance workshops. These coatings, often transparent and translucent, contain a mixture of organic and inorganic components and may be still preserved in hidden parts of statues in indoor displays. However, the complexity of the original varnishes, their degradation and alteration over time, and the coexistence of materials added for conservation and maintenance purposes are challenging for their characterization. The often well-preserved surface of varnished bronzes and their small size make it mandatory to make the most of using noninvasive techniques for their investigation. To this end, to simulate the actual historical coatings, we prepared a set of mock-ups following ancient recipes and using materials that were available in the Renaissance. We used the samples to assess to what extent it is possible to disclose the formulation (binders, colourants, and other additives) and the thickness of a Renaissance patina with noninvasive methods. Microprofilometry (MP), optical coherence tomography (OCT), and eddy current (EC) gauge were tested on the samples and the results were combined with reflectance Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The analyses performed on the mock-ups set the ground for investigating a Renaissance bronze featuring reddish semi-transparent varnish layers. The achievements are discussed in this paper, along with the limitations of the use of a noninvasive approach.

Bending the light: Next generation anamorphic sculptures

This paper presents a new method for generating artworks that extends the classical anamorphic archetype to use freeform reflective and refractive media and 3D surfaces instead of images. The methodology uses a mix of raytracing and surface deformation techniques to determine the proper deformation the object should undergo to be corrected by the optical tool once viewed by the observer in a specific location. Our approach also includes an optimization process that modifies the point of view and the location of the target image to avoid unwanted optical effects or occlusions. We successfully tested our technique on several practical examples and employed it to produce actual artworks.

The Artistry of The Non-Humans

In contemporary art, a growing number of artists experiment with non-humans in their actual artworks. This paper examines the issues related to such practices with reference to Jakob von Uexküll’s analyses of the configuration of meaningful worlds by non-human animals, as well as Merleau-Ponty’s and Deleuze-Guattari’s interpretations of Uexküll’s ideas. Uexküll maintained that every living being lives in a world with meaning; Merleau-Ponty understood this claim as situating the beginning of culture in the creativity of non-humans; Deleuze and Guattari emphasized the melodic and rhythmic dimension of this creativity, mainly interpreted as territorialization processes. These elements are paramount to understanding what is at stake with artworks featuring non-humans: considering projects proposals from Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Tomas Saraceno, Ana Maria Lopez Gomez and other contemporary artists, the conclusion is that an artwork featuring an encounter between two territorializing movements has the potential to transform the human range of perception.

Counterfactual Reasoning in Art Criticism

Abstract When we evaluate artworks, we often point to what an artist could have done or what a work could have been in order to say something about the work as it actually is. Call this counterfactual reasoning in art criticism. On my account, counterfactual claims about artworks involve comparative aesthetic judgments between actual artworks and hypothetical variations of those works. The practice of imagining what an artwork could have been is critically useful because it can help us understand how artworks achieve specific aesthetic effects. I conclude by responding to an objection to my account on the basis that it violates the widely accepted acquaintance principle in aesthetics, on which aesthetic judgments must be based on firsthand perceptual encounters with their objects.

Modelling spatio-temporal ageing phenomena with deep Generative Adversarial Networks

Deterioration modelling of ageing phenomena on materials is an actively researched topic in computer graphics and vision, with a wide range of applications in domains such as cultural heritage, game programming, material science and virtual reality. As a result significant progress has been accomplished and existing methods are able to produce visually pleasing results that appear realistic. However, there is a very limited connection to comprehensive measurements that actually capture the ageing process of a material. This paper focuses on this gap, aiming to provide a link between physical measurements and deterioration modelling. Based on extensive measurements of texture and surface geometry of artificially aged reference materials, a Deep Learning (DL) framework is proposed that models spatio-temporal variations on the 3D surface geometry and the 2D colour–image appearance. Concretely, the problem of material degradation over time is formulated as an 2D/3D material-to-material translation problem, where the goal is, given an input material and a target degradation time, to output the degraded material at that time. At the core of the method lies a modified conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN), which maps input materials to degraded materials over time. In order to train and deploy the proposed cGAN model, proper data parameterization and augmentation steps are introduced. As shown through extensive experimentation on real data coming from materials commonly found in artwork and from actual artworks, the proposed approach produces high quality results.

THE CREATION OF NEW STRUCTURES WHILE PERCEIVING A PIECE OF ART

The article explores the thesis that new structures are not always formed during artistic work perception, as evidenced by, in particular, our own experience. A text (any artistic work at all) can produce new structures if it is perceived and experienced as an event. The article underlines that so-called “entry” is the main operational parameter at this case. The article also describes several experimental studies involving students in non-artistic specialities and intended to evoke actual aesthetic perception (structuring) if conditions are created for “entry” and active “being” within the space of an art piece. It is summarized that all described experiments were effective even regardless of participants’ personalities and exhibited artwork; the participants demonstrated clearly enough in their narratives that their experiencing of an art piece led to formation of new structures within their inner worlds. Our own studies in art psychology domain provided us with empiric material proving that under certain conditions art works should be regarded as “structure-generating”: their perception through conceptual lenses of “entry” and “encompassing” leads to bright experiencing, and consequently creation of new structures in an individual’s inner world. The most essential factor distinguishing an artwork from a non-artwork lies within special correlation of its form and its material (content). Despite a traditional idea about their “unity” in artwork, we state that art can appear only wherein an author, using vital material, overcomes its life-form, and exactly this overcoming allows ordinary and routine everyday thing to grow into an aesthetic phenomenon. According to studies, a catharsis may happen to human being due to collision of two emotions with opposite modalities. So, the article justifies the thesis that all poetic works of V.S. Vysotsky are actual artworks and any Vysotsky’s verse potentially contains a chance of perceptual catharsis that is provided through overcoming of vital material by an artistic form. Conclusion is drawn that Vysotsky’s works can be considered as the top of poetic mastery according to their influence on an individual’s emotional sphere.

Characterization of Zinc Carboxylates in an Oil Paint Test Panel

ABSTRACTZinc (carboxylate) soaps, formed by reactions between zinc oxide (ZnO) and fatty acids in a drying oil, are known to cause deterioration in the paint layers of modern and contemporary oil paintings. This study investigates zinc carboxylates that developed in an oil painting test panel designed to mimic the aging and degradation encountered in actual works of art. Following accelerated and natural aging, protrusions were noted on the surface of the test panel. A large protrusion with erupted gel features was extracted from the test panel, mounted in top view, and then cut to reveal the sample's cross section. The gel features, which resulted from the unreacted oil binder's separation from the paint matrix, facilitated zinc carboxylate formation. Using reflectance µ-FTIR and SEM-EDX analysis, the morphologies and spatial distributions of zinc carboxylates within the gel regions of the protrusion were studied. A concentration gradient of zinc within the gel material was observed in the cross-sectional view, indicating patterns of zinc carboxylate formation and migration.

“Dig, What Makes Your Mouth So Big?”: Off-Modern Nostalgia, Symbolic Cannibalism, and Crossing the Border of the Universal Language in Clarence Major’s “The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage”

Abstract African American literature on the Middle Passage has always challenged white supremacy’s language with its power to define and control. This article demonstrates how the border of such a “Universal Language” is challenged and trespassed in Clarence Major’s ekphrastic poem “The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage” in order to communicate – through the implementation of the voice of a disembodied water spirit Mfu – the black perspective on understanding the slave trade and effectively resist the symbolic cannibalism of Western Culture. The trope of antropophagy often appears in Middle Passage poems in the context of (mis)communication (which results in the production of controlling, racist images of blacks) and stands as a sign of Euro-American power to create the historical, hierarchical, racial reality of the Atlantic slave trade in its economic and symbolic dimensions. The strategy implemented by Major in his poetic confrontation with representation of historical slave trade in European and American Fine arts may be classified as “off-modern” (to use Svetlana Boym’s (2001) nomenclature), which immediately places his poem in a “tradition of critical reflection on the modern condition that incorporates nostalgia” as a means of a critical analysis of the heritage and limitations of a given culture. My claim is that the poem’s “off-modern nostalgia” perspective is a version of textualist strategy which Henry Louis Gates (1988) identifies as Signifyin(g). Major/Mfu successfully perforates and destabilizes the assumed objectivity and neutrality of the images of blacks and blackness created and circulated within the realm of the visual arts of the dominant Western Culture. In “The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage” Signifyin(g) takes the form of what could be called an ekphrastic (re)interpretation of actual works of art and joins in the critique of essentialist views often associated with understanding of meaning.

The Reformation of Emotions in the Age of Shakespeare. Steven Mullaney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. x+231.

<i>The Reformation of Emotions in the Age of Shakespeare</i>. Steven Mullaney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. x+231.

Temperature-related degradation and colour changes of historic paintings containing vivianite

Temperature-related degradation of pure synthetic as well as partly oxidised natural vivianite has been studied by high-temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) covering the whole extent of the temperature-related stability of its structure. While temperatures around 70°C are already damaging to vivianite, exposition to 160°C results in complete amorphisation of both the vivianite and its oxidation products. As indicated by Mössbauer spectroscopy, temperature-induced oxidation of vivianite starts at 90°C. To study the occurring structural as well as accompanying colour changes in more detail, model vivianite paint layer samples with different historic binders were prepared and subjected to increased temperatures. Exposition to 80°C caused pronounced colour changes of all the samples: ground natural blue vivianite became grey – a colour change which has been described in actual works of art. Regarding the binders, the oil seemed to facilitate the transfer of heat to vivianite’s grains. To simulate conditions of conservation treatment under which the painting is exposed to increased temperatures, oil-on-canvas mock-ups with vivianite were prepared and relined in a traditional way using iron. The treatment affected preferentially larger grains of vivianite; the micro-samples documented their change to grey, and their Raman spectra showed the change from vivianite to metavivianite.

A System for Recognizing User Actions on an Interactive Surface using Accelerometers

It is important for systems to recognize user actions using sensors and cameras when constructing interactive systems and artworks. Conventional systems have tackled to make systems recognize wide varieties of user actions and to install sensing devices with various environmental restrictions. However, since the recognition methods in conventional systems are specialized to their own work, they cannot be applied to other systems and a specialist for activity recognition is required to construct the systems. In addition, conventional systems took a long time to select recognition algorithms and to set the recognition parameters. This means that they cannot have enough flexibility to change the actions to be recognized or to adapt to changing environments. This paper proposes a method of adding interactivity to various surfaces and recognizing the positions and intensities of performed action by using multiple accelerometers. Our method has functions that enable easy settings and maintenance even by beginners in activity recognition. Participants in an experiment on constructing interactive surfaces constructed a system that could recognize two actions at two points in 51 minutes on average. Moreover, we confirmed the effectiveness of our approach with two actual artworks in long-term media-arts exhibitions.

Tracing Expression in Merleau-Ponty: Aesthetics, Philosophy of Biology, and Ontology by Véronique Fóti (review)

Reviewed by: Tracing Expression in Merleau-Ponty: Aesthetics, Philosophy of Biology, and Ontology by Véronique Fóti Jessica Wiskus Véronique Fóti. Tracing Expression in Merleau-Ponty: Aesthetics, Philosophy of Biology, and Ontology. Northwestern Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Series Editor, Anthony J. Steinbock. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2013. Pp. xiv + 299. Paper, $34.95. “The body expresses existence at every moment,” writes Merleau-Ponty in Phenomenology of Perception. And while scholars of Merleau-Ponty from many fields are familiar with his notion of embodiment, the theme of expression, according to Fóti, has not received due attention. Motivated by “a growing sense that expression was not only a theme that meaningfully interlinked such disparate facets of Merleau-Ponty’s thought as aesthetics, the philosophy of biology (especially zoology), and ontology, but also that it constituted for him a central problematic in its own right” (5), Fóti proposes a study of expression that would take into account a broad range of Merleau-Ponty’s writings. Focusing mainly on essays and course notes from the mid to late-1950s (with a significant nod to the unfinished manuscript, The Visible and the Invisible), Fóti’s Tracing Expression in Merleau-Ponty: Aesthetics, Philosophy of Biology, and Ontology, as the title indicates, is organized into three parts. The first part, “Expression in Merleau-Ponty’s Aesthetics,” dedicates a chapter to each of Merleau-Ponty’s seminal essays on artistic expression, “Cézanne’s Doubt,” “Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence,” and “Eye and Mind.” Part 2, “Expression in Animal Life,” investigates the expressivity of animal behavior and animal appearance by drawing upon Merleau-Ponty’s course notes collected in Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France. Part 3, “Expression in Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology,” is the briefest of the three sections, only 27 pages in length; however compact, it is this section that offers the most original reading of Merleau-Ponty’s work. In chapter 6, “The Role of Expression in Merleau-Ponty’s Dialogue with the Rationalists,” Fóti places Merleau-Ponty’s thought in relation to not only Descartes (Merleau-Ponty’s well-known interlocutor) but also Spinoza and Leibniz. In chapter 7, “The Irreducibility of Expression: Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology and Its Wider Implications,” Fóti collects various artistic and biological threads from previous chapters in order to take an account of the role of expression within Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh. It is perhaps appropriate that, in terms of length, the first part nearly outstrips parts 2 and 3 combined. It is appropriate because Fóti is herself an artist, a painter who regularly exhibits her work. She brings to her reading of Merleau-Ponty’s essays in painting, therefore, not only a unique artistic sensibility (which plays itself out productively, as well, in her reading of animal appearance in chapter 5) but also her extensive knowledge of works of art. It is this knowledge that supports Fóti as she assesses Merleau-Ponty’s notion of expression in relation to examples of late twentieth-century and contemporary works of art. It is also this knowledge that leads Fóti to read Merleau-Ponty’s essays as if they were essays concerned with the work of art as an autonomous object; she critiques Merleau-Ponty for failing to sufficiently address actual artworks. Yet one could argue that to substitute the work of art (as expressive object) for the work-ing of art (as expressive movement) is to miss the temporal structure of expression; what is at issue here is the centrality of institution (Stiftung) in Merleau-Ponty’s notion of expression. Indeed, it is institution that promises to tie together also the threads of biological maturation and behavior that Fóti explores in chapters 4 and 5. Fóti offers us tantalizing hints of the way that institution and expression are intertwined when she touches upon Merleau-Ponty’s course notes of 1954–55, Institution and Passivity, but of great help here would be the course notes of 1958–59 (“La philosophie aujourd’hui”) and 1960–61 (“L’ontologie cartésienne et l’ontologie d’aujourd’hui”), collected together under...

An Educational Bridge across the Cultural Divide: Teaching Art to Science Students and Science to Art Students

two cultures divide between art and science remains a problem, and it is aggravated by an educational system that compartmentalizes programs of study. Thus a course that focuses on the connection between art and science is a useful corrective. I have had extensive personal experience teaching such an unusual course, The Psychology of Art and Creativity, which is offered as a valid elective for both science and art majors. My experience is that both groups gain a much greater understanding and appreciation of each other's chosen field of endeavour. It is important in such a course to include exposure to actual artworks in every genre, rather than primarily focusing on criticism and analysis. Personal subjective opinions have to be more openly welcomed than in the traditional academic approach, while making a clear distinction between personal preference and objective judgment. One useful pedagogical tool is an informal reflective journal where students write as much, or as little, as they want about each of the class themes. Also useful are online discussion forums where students can bounce ideas off of each other and share their enthusiasms.

Pablo Picasso to Jasper Johns: a Raman study of cobalt‐based synthetic inorganic pigments

The Raman spectra of approximately 20 reference samples of cobalt‐based green and violet artists' pigments of various provenance (present day manufactory, historical reference pigments and samples from a contemporary artist's studio) were acquired to assist in the identification of unknown cobalt‐based pigments in works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Jasper Johns (b. 1930). Specifically, Raman spectra were obtained for various cobalt titanate greens (Co2TiO4), highlighting variability in peak positions because of ionic substitutions in the spinel structures of such pigments. The Raman spectra of the cobalt violet pigments magnesium cobalt arsenate (MgxCo3‐x(AsO4)2) and hydrated forms, ammonium cobalt phosphate hydrate (NH4CoPO4*H2O), and anhydrous cobalt phosphate, Co3(PO4)2were also recorded; some of which are presented here for the first time. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x‐ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and x‐ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to confirm the composition of the reference materials. An optimal technique to characterize microscopic cross sections from the studied artworks is Raman microscopy, which can also provide valuable information on the hydration states of the examined phases. The multi‐analytical methodology allowed the identification of the unknown green pigment used by Jasper Johns as cobalt titanate green (C.I. PG 50); representing the first documented occurrence of this pigment in the palette of a renowned contemporary artist. Both magnesium cobalt arsenate (in anhydrous and hydrated forms) and anhydrous cobalt phosphate were identified in the Picasso painting.This research advances the knowledge of 20th century synthetic inorganic pigments used by artists and documents their usage in actual works of art. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Matter and Movement’s Presence: Notes on Heidegger, Francesco Mosca, and Bernini

Abstract The role of actual works of art with philosophical writing is often reduced to the status of example or illustration. As such the materiality of art work is rarely discussed let alone deployed as the basis of philosophical reflection. In this paper works by Francesco Mosca, and Bernini are used to question Heidegger’s writings on sculpture. What such an approach opens up is the possibility that art may set the measure for philosophy.

‘China’ on Display for European Audiences? The Making of an Early Travelling Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art: China Avantgarde (Berlin/1993)

Exhibitions have always been at the heart of the modern art world. They are contested sites, where the joint forces of the art objects, their social agents, and institutional spaces temporarily intersect and provide a visual arrangement to specific audiences, whose interpretations feed back into the discourse on art. From this perspective, “contemporary Chinese art,” both as phenomenon and discursive category referring to specific dimensions of artistic production in China post-1979, was mediated through various exhibitions that took place in the People’s Republic of China. After 1989, exhibitions of artworks from the PRC in European and North American museums significantly contributed to the broadening of Western knowledge about this artistic production. Since then, the two strains of exhibition activities grew while becoming increasingly entangled and the discursive category of “contemporary Chinese art” has gone global. This paper reviews the beginnings of this complex process by investigating the conditions that configured the first large group exhibition of contemporary Chinese art from the PRC in Europe after 1979: the travelling group show China Avantgarde , which opened in Berlin in early 1993. The first part of the paper explores the wider historical conditions that impacted on the exhibition by contextualizing the event in relation to two important, if very different forerunners: the 1989 shows Zhongguo xiandai yishu zhan. China/Avantgarde in Beijing and Magiciens de la terre in Paris.Yet the important entanglements between the respective curatorial concepts, affiliated art discourses, and the agents involved are also analysed. Constituting a specific network of mediators, mediating factors, and mediating institutions, these forerunners influenced the making of China Avantgarde in Berlin three years later. The second part of the paper discusses the Berlin exhibition in detail. It argues that the title reflects the contested use of the discursive categories “avant-garde” and “modern art” in Beijing and Berlin at the time, which helped translate and thereby shape a certain image of contemporary Chinese art beyond the actual artworks on display. Of paricular interes are the concerns of the European curators, who had to overcome various political, logistic, as well as conceptual challenges when selecting artists and artworks. Examining the catalogue as an instance where diverging strategies of how to present artworks from thePRC become visible, the paper argues that China Avantgarde was not so much a clear-cut, singular, and–by now–canonical event, but formed as well as informed a complex canonizing process that is still relevant today.

Fluorescence recognition of proteinaceous binders in works of art by a novel integrated system of investigation

AbstractFluorescence microscopy and microspectrofluorometry are important tools in the characterization and identification of proteins, offering a great range of applications in conservation science. Because of their high selectivity and sensitivity, the combination of these techniques can be exploited for improved recognition and quantification of proteinaceous binders in paintings and polychromed works of art. The present article explores an analytical protocol integrating fluorescence microscopy and fluorometry for both identification and mapping of proteinaceous binders (in particular egg and glues) in paint samples. The study has been carried out on historically accurate reconstructions simulating the structure and composition of tempera and oil paints containing these binders. To assess the spatial distribution of specific proteins within the paint layers, cross‐sections from the reconstructions were analyzed by fluorescence imaging after staining with an exogenous fluorophore. Reference fluorescence spectra for each layer were acquired by a multichannel spectral analyzer and compared after Gaussian deconvolution. The results obtained demonstrated the effectiveness of the integrated protocol, highlighting the potential for the use of fluorescent staining coupled with microspectrofluorometry as a routine diagnostic tool in conservation science. The current work creates a set of fully characterized reference samples for further comparison with those from actual works of art. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The use of direct temperature-resolved mass spectrometry (DTMS) in the detection of organic pigments found in acrylic paints used by Sam Francis

When analyzed in the dry, powdered form, most of the hundreds of modern synthetic organic pigments that have been introduced throughout the 20th century can be effectively characterized by direct temperature-resolved mass spectrometry (DTMS) [S.Q. Lomax, M. Schilling, T. Learner, in: T. Learner, P. Smithen, J.W. Krueger, M. Schilling (Eds.), Modern Paints Uncovered, Getty Conservation Institute, Tate Modern, London, 2007, p. 105]. However, their detection in paint formulations is often far more difficult, as these pigments are usually present in only very low concentrations, due to their relatively high tinting strengths. The situation is also more complex when one attempts to identify these pigments from microscopic samples of paint taken from actual works of art, due to the frequent manipulation, mixing, or adulteration of paints by artists during their application. A project aiming to characterize the wide range of pigments found in the paints of Sam Francis (American, 1923–1994) prompted work to investigate more fully the sensitivity of a DTMS system by comparing various ionization conditions, including electron impact (EI) at 70 and 16 eV, and chemical ionization (CI) with iso-butane in both positive- and negative-ion modes. Overall, it was found that negative-ion CI conditions showed the best results for detecting the majority of synthetic organic pigments tested: the very limited fragmentation it produced in most of the pigments resulted in a much stronger and more readily detectable molecular ion that could be more easily distinguished from the lower m/ z-value ions typically coming from other components in the paints.

Tennyson and the Legacies of Romantic Art

Everyone knows that a number of important concepts gained a new resonance and prestige around the turn of the nineteenth century: the phenomenon is called (or is symptomatic of what is called) ‘romanticism’; and any account of romanticism's legacies might well choose to consider the continuing life of those new significances within subsequent literary thinking. The terms that matter are words such as art, aesthetic, imagination, literature, poetry; and the intricate pattern of changes in their meanings has been drawn most influentially by Raymond Williams, initially in Culture and Society and then later in Keywords. Where, for instance, art had once meant ‘any human skill’, as Williams says, it became during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century a word with a very specialised and superior sort of reference, evidence of ‘a remarkable change in ideas of the nature and purpose of art, and of its relations to other human activities and to society as a whole’ – the ‘change’ in question being something like a decision to divorce. The story is: art, which had once participated unquestioningly in the main movements of social practice, now became defined by its separateness from that life, and even by an hostility towards it. This divisive change occurs as part of much ‘wider changes in life and thought’, all ways of registering the divisive shock of modern industrial civilisation:1 ‘Clearly’, says Williams, ‘the major shift represented by the modern complex of literature, art, aesthetic, creative and imaginative is a matter of social and cultural history’.2 That history, for Williams, found its most satisfactory account in Marxist terms: ‘a general social activity was forced into the status of a department or province, and actual works of art were in part converted into a self-pleading ideology’ (Culture and Society, 47). Williams himself was not narrowly hostile to a Romantic emphasis on human ‘creativity’; and Coleridge is actually handled very sympathetically in Culture and Society. But it is not difficult to see how the association of a Romantic vocabulary with deplorable political change might be construed as a brand of complicity, and the ostensible distance of that aesthetic language from questions of real politics as a kind of deceit, the institutions of art but agents of bad ideology. Terry Eagleton, Williams's most eminent pupil, is usefully outspoken in this line: the aesthetic, he says, serves as the type of the new ‘bourgeois subject’, who is ‘autonomous and self-determining [and] acknowledges no merely extrinsic law but instead, in some mysterious fashion, gives the law to itself’.3 That is practically a paraphrase of Coleridge's description of the organic form possessed by great works of the imagination: for Coleridge, a Shakespeare play does not obey any rules from without, as does a work by Racine, but grows instead according to an inward law, ‘a law which all the parts obey[,] conforming themselves to the outward symbols &amp; manifestations of the essential principle’.4 A work of art, in the new Romantic sense, is for Eagleton ‘a model of free, self-referential, autotelic, autoaffective being’: which is how capitalism makes the bourgeois subject think about himself.5 But all such pretensions are spurious, as it is needless to say: ‘literature is an illusion’, Eagleton wrote in his best-selling Literary Theory; and the task of the critic then becomes to expose that illusoriness, so returning works of ‘literature’ to ‘the social purposes and conditions in which they were embedded’.6