{"product_id":"authority-and-freedom-a-defense-of-the-arts-hardcover","title":"Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJed Perl\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom one of our most widely admired art critics comes a bold and timely manifesto reaffirming the independence of all the arts--musical, literary, and visual--and their unique and unparalleled power to excite, disturb, and inspire us.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs people look to the arts to promote a particular ideology, whether radical, liberal, or conservative, Jed Perl argues that the arts have their own laws and logic, which transcend the controversies of any one moment. \"Art's relevance,\" he writes, \"has everything to do with what many regard as its irrelevance.\" \u003ci\u003eAuthority and Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e will find readers from college classrooms to foundation board meetings--wherever the arts are confronting social, political, and economic ferment and heated debates about political correctness and cancel culture. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePerl embraces the work of creative spirits as varied as Mozart, Michelangelo, Jane Austen, Henry James, Picasso, and Aretha Franklin. He contends that the essence of the arts is their ability to free us from fixed definitions and categories. Art is inherently uncategorizable--that's the key to its importance. Taking his stand with artists and thinkers ranging from W. H. Auden to Hannah Arendt, Perl defends works of art as adventuresome dialogues, simultaneously dispassionate and impassioned. He describes the fundamental sense of vocation--the engagement with the tools and traditions of a medium--that gives artists their purpose and focus. Whether we're experiencing a poem, a painting, or an opera, it's the interplay between authority and freedom--what Perl calls \"the lifeblood of the arts\"--that fuels the imaginative experience. This book will be essential reading for everybody who cares about the future of the arts in a democratic society.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJED PERL is the author of the two-volume biography of Alexander Calder. For twenty years, he was the art critic of \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic.\u003c\/i\u003e His previous books include \u003ci\u003eMagicians \u0026amp; Charlatans, Antoine's Alphabet, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNew Art City.\u003c\/i\u003e He lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 176\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.77 x 7.79 x 5.32 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 11, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51767539794208,"sku":"9780593320051","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/c0a5d4d0c035b707b00a8c8dc2debf8b.webp?v=1780312868","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/authority-and-freedom-a-defense-of-the-arts-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}