Significant form refers to an aesthetic theory developed by English art critic

Clive Bell Arthur Clive Heward Bell (16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964) was an English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group. He developed the art theory known as significant form. Biography Origins Bell was born in East ...

which specified a set of criteria for what qualified as a

work of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

. In his 1914 Book ''Art,'' Bell postulated that for an object to be deemed a work of art it required potential to provoke aesthetic emotion in its viewer, a quality he termed "significant form." Bell's definition explicitly separated significant form from

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

; in order to possess significant form, an object need not be attractive as long as it elicits an emotional response. As Bell put it succinctly: "The important thing about a picture, however, is not how it is painted, but whether it provokes aesthetic emotion." Semir Zeki, the neurobiologist, has written that the term "significant configuration" may be a better choice since, by Bell's definition, "significant form" is restricted to lines and colours whereas "significant configuration" is broader and may include features such as faces or bodies which must have a significant configuration to be recognized as such.

References

Sources

Text of ''Art'' Gutenberg Project
Concepts in aesthetics Art criticism {{art-criticism-stub