British Formalist Aesthetics: A Comparative Analysis Of Clive Bell And Roger Frye's Aesthetic Thoughts

Britain formalism aestheticsproduced in the early 20 th century Britain formalism aesthetics,as a turns to aesthetic subject,form in the important position and aesthetic school,is emerging with a "revolutionary spirit",its representative figure is British art theorist and critic Clive bell and Roger fry.Bell and Fry were both members of the bloomsbury group,and both were closely associated with post-impressionism.The same historical background,similar academic origin,similar theoretical system,inevitably make people confused.In this paper,comparative analysis is used to compare the aesthetic ideas of two people.First of all,the first chapter discusses the origin of two people's aesthetic thought from three aspects: the background of The Times,the cultural group and the philosophical foundation.Secondly,in the second chapter,the author analyzed and compared the theoretical contents of the aesthetic ideas of bell and fry,and clarified the relationship and difference between the two aesthetic thoughts.In contact,first by two people as "impressionism" after the painting's defense,as well as put forward by the bell "meaningful forms" and frye's theory of "double life,about the aesthetic emotion and emotional life completely different paper to illustrate the similarities of two aesthetic thoughts.In the aspect of difference,it is mainly reflected in two aspects,one is the difference of the definition of art essence;Another is the difference in artistic reproduction.In the definition of the essence of art,the essence of bell's declaration is that the essence of art lies in the "meaningful form",which eventually falls into a circular argument of "pure form" and "aesthetic emotion".While frye thinks he's is a tentative work,more reluctant to clear comb his aesthetic thoughts,and the first to point out bell in the circular reasoning,think that the essence of art is confusing.In the reappearance of art,frye makes it clear in the review that he and bell completely reject the differences of views on the reappearance of artistic works.He thinks bell seems to have gone too far,because,in his view,"the artist is free to choose the degree of reproduction that is appropriate for his emotional expression."Finally,based on the comparative analysis of bell and fry's theory of aesthetics,this paper sorts out and summarizes the value of two people's aesthetic thoughts and their influence on modern art.In general,though both bear and fry are representatives of British formalistic aesthetics,they differ in their thinking.Most of the people in China are still in the initial stage of confusing two people.This paper aims to clarify the differences and links between them through comparative analysis,and clearly point out this problem and hope to attract attention.