{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "Art as Experience", "slug": "art-as-experience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience.md", "author": { "name": "John Dewey", "slug": "john-dewey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/tarcher/john-dewey/art-as-experience_978-03-9953-197-2.jpg", "quotes_count": 18, "quotes": [ { "id": "e0a389bd-49ff-4775-a88a-e8855cd0f8d1", "slug": "coleridge-said-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/coleridge-said-that", "text": "Coleridge said that every work of art must have about it something not understood to obtain its full effect.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 202, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "secrets", "slug": "secrets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "dc9efa69-b27b-4e27-9ea7-504ea6c0022a", "slug": "the-true-antithesis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/the-true-antithesis", "text": "The true antithesis of nature is not art but arbitrary conceit, fantasy, and stereotyped convention.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 158, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "d7964872-bd47-46e7-8d19-df09a76ebf20", "slug": "when-there-is-genuine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/when-there-is-genuine", "text": "When there is genuine artistry in scientific inquiry and philosophic speculation, a thinker proceeds neither by rule nor yet blindly, but by means of meaning that exist immediately as feelings having qualitative color.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "d2b9d34a-706b-4abe-be32-8d275a689dc4", "slug": "we-cannot-grasp", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/we-cannot-grasp", "text": "We cannot grasp any idea, any organ of meditation, we cannot possess it in full force, until we have felt and sensed it, as much so as if it were an odor or a color.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "the senses", "slug": "the-senses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-senses" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "c8607756-61d9-468a-a6bb-ee9b056a0671", "slug": "form-may-then", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/form-may-then", "text": "Form may then be defined as the operation of forces that carry the experience of an event, object, scene, and situation to its own integral fulfillment.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "b718a0e7-a2e8-41e8-9604-843fa29e5d93", "slug": "works-of-art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/works-of-art", "text": "Works of art express space as opportunity for movement and action.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 217, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "a5e6524c-3d71-4a12-9255-b6e31c26e827", "slug": "the-difference-between", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/the-difference-between", "text": "The difference between the artificial and the artful in the artistic lies on the surface in the former there is a split between what is overly done and what is intended. The appearance is one of cordiality; the intent is that of gaining favor. Whenever this split between what is done and its purpose exists, there is insincerity, a trick, a simulation of an act that intrinsically has another effect. When the natural and the cultivated blend into one, acts of social intercourse are works of art. The animating impulsion of genial friendship and the deed performed completely coincide without intrusion of ulterior motive. Awkwardness may prevent adequacy of expression.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "honesty", "slug": "honesty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "960b220b-1115-425c-b734-aaf530bc7a93", "slug": "art-expresses-it-does", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/art-expresses-it-does", "text": "Art expresses, it does not state; it is concerned with existences in their perceived qualities, not with conceptions symbolized in terms.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 139, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "93e4236e-18f3-4dcc-9ac2-381f2dbfcf03", "slug": "all-the-cases", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/all-the-cases", "text": "All the cases in which means and ends are external to one another are non-esthetic.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 205, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "81d9a145-15db-4a0a-bde0-6f671cbf66fb", "slug": "in-most-cases", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/in-most-cases", "text": "In most cases the esthetic objection to doses of morals and of economic or political propaganda in works of art will be found upon analysis to reside in the over-weighing of certain values at the expense of others until, except for those in a similar stare of one-sides enthusiasm, weariness rather than refreshment sets in.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 188, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "5f7a6d1c-57c1-45f3-afc3-60414ac23437", "slug": "so-we-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/so-we-are", "text": "So we are always esthetically disappointed when the sensuous qualities and the intellectual properties of an object do not coalesce.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 7, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "457e4041-4e79-42a1-95c4-15388660e017", "slug": "if-one-examines", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/if-one-examines", "text": "If one examines the reason why certain works of art offend us, one is likely to find that the cause is that there is no personally felt emotion guiding the selecting the assembling of the materials presented. We derive the impression that the artist, say the author of a novel, is trying to regulate by conscious intent the nature of the emotion aroused. We are irritated by a feeling that he is manipulating materials to secure an effect decided upon in advance. The facets of the work, the variety so indispensable to it, are held together by some external force. The movement of the parts and the conclusion disclose no logical necessity. The author, not the subject matter, is the arbiter.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "emotions", "slug": "emotions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "38005572-59c7-470d-b32a-318d0c162fec", "slug": "it-cannot-be-inserted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/it-cannot-be-inserted", "text": "It cannot be inserted too strongly That what is not immediate is not esthetic.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "36e2acba-14ca-46f8-a4dc-04e37e5ff045", "slug": "in-the-development", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/in-the-development", "text": "In the development of an expressive act, the emotion operates like a magnet drawing to itself appropriate material: appropriate because it has an experienced emotional affinity for the state of mind already moving. Selection and organization of material are at once a function and a test of the quality of the emotion experienced. In seeing a drama, beholding a picture, or reading a novel, we may feel that the parts do not hang together. Either the maker had no experience that was emotionally toned, or, although having at the outset a felt emotion, it was not sustained, and a succession of unrelated emotions dictated the work. In the latter case, attention wavered and shifted, and an assemblage of incongruous parts ensued. The sensitive observer or reader is aware of junctions and seams, of holes arbitrarily filled in. Yes, emotion must operate. But it works to effect continuity of movement, singleness of effect amid variety. It is selective of material and directive of its order and arrangement. But it is not what is expressed. Without emotion, there may be craftsmanship, but not art; it may be present and be intense, but if it is directly manifested the result is also not art.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 72, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "emotions", "slug": "emotions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "330359fc-c035-42d8-9704-9995d2fd0290", "slug": "to-look-at-a-work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/to-look-at-a-work", "text": "To look at a work of art in order to see how well certain rules are observed and canons conformed to impoverished perception. But to strive to note the ways in which certain conditions are fulfilled, such as the organic means by which the media is made to express and carry definite parts, or how the problem of adequate individualization is solved, sharpens esthetic perception and enriches its content.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 213, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "criticism", "slug": "criticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/criticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "308b71e0-a9f5-401f-9071-535ab67af096", "slug": "artist-and-perceiver", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/artist-and-perceiver", "text": "Artist and perceiver alike begin with what may be called a total seizure, an inclusive qualitative whole not yet articulated, not distinguished into members.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 199, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "21dc2b02-1c9e-4e16-a4bb-e9b070351ba4", "slug": "because-rhythm-is-a-universal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/because-rhythm-is-a-universal", "text": "Because rhythm is a universal scheme of existence, underlying all realization of order in change, it pervades all the arts, literary, musical, plastic and architectural, as well as the dance. Since man succeeds only as he adapts his behavior to the order of nature, his achievements and victories, as they ensue upon resistance and struggle, become the matrix of all esthetic subject-matter; in some sense they constitute the common pattern of art, the ultimate conditions of form. Their cumulative orders of succession become without express intent the means by which man commemorates and celebrates the most intense and full moments of his experience. Underneath the rhythm of every art and every work of art there lies, as a substratum in the depths of the subconsciousness, the basic pattern of the relations of the live creature to his environment.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 156, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" }, { "id": "1334af71-cada-4081-8f74-fe2f66ada10f", "slug": "what-happens-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-dewey/art-as-experience/what-happens-in-the", "text": "What happens in the movement of art is emergence of new materials of experience demanding expression, and therefore involving in their expression new forms and techniques.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey#Art_as_Experience_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:06" } ] }