Rudolf Arnheim

Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors.

The dance, just as the performance of the actor, is kinesthetic art, art of the muscle sense. The awareness of tension and relaxation within his own body, the sense of balance that distinguishes the proud stability of the vertical from the risky adventures of thrusting and falling--these are the tools of the dancer.

Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination.

Once it is recognized that productive thinking in any area of cognition is perceptual thinking, the central function of art in general education will become evident.

Man's striving for order, of which art is but one manifestation, derives from a similar universal tendency throughout the organic world; it is also paralleled by, and perhaps derived from, the striving towards the state of simplest structure in physical systems.

The arts are neglected because they are based on perception, and perception is disdained because it is not assumed to involve thought.

Variety is more than a means of avoiding boredom, since art is more than an entertainment of the senses.

Order is a necessary condition for anything the human mind is to understand.