Roger Fry’s “Difficult and Uncertain Science” The Interpretation of Aesthetic Perception, Adrianne Rubin (2013) Traces the development and evolution of the writings of Roger Fry The role of emerging psychological theories in Fry’s aesthetic theories Making art accessible to a wide audience: highlighting the universal aspects of aesthetic perception Background: Black Sea Coast, Roger Fry

Roger Fry (1866-1934) English painter and art critic, member of the Bloomsbury Group. Resides at the intersection of late 19th c.- early 20th c.- art criticism in Britain. Introduced modern French painting to the London art world: organized two major exhibitions in the Grafton galleries, London (1910, 1912). ”An Essay in Aesthetics” (1909) – on formalist principles, “Fry’s greatest contribution to art criticism and aesthetics” (48) Roger Fry, Autoportrait (1928)

Table of Contents / Chronology Introduction Chapter I – The Centrality of Sensation: 1891-1905 Chapter II – Emotion Articulated through Form: 1906-1909 Chapter III – The Perception of Significant Form: 1910-1915 Chapter IV – Unity and Necessity: 1917-1934 Chapter V – Fry’s legacy Conclusion

Science in Fry’s theories “The artist should be a physiologist” (Fry, 1888). Psychological hypotheses had a great influence on Fry’s conception of art, helping him understand and explain the nature of aesthetic perception (“the other’s aesthetic psychology” Fry). Influenced by phenomenology, itself based on the fundamental principles of British Empiricism Helmholtz, “On the Relation of Optics to Painting” (1871): perception is profoundly subjective. # Ruskin’s concept of the “innocence of the eye”  the spectator plays an active role in seeking sensation from the composition.

The two exhibition of 1910 and 1912 ”[Fry] sought to show the public and his fellow art critics exactly what it was he had been writing about.” (83) The first exhibition (1910) was met with scandal. “[The] accusation of revolutionary anarchism was due to a social rather than an aesthetic prejudice” (Fry, Vision and Design) Fry’s “deep understanding of the psychology of spectatorship.” (90) The first exhibition prepared the public for the second exhibition

Fry’s Legacy: Art as a democratic experience ”The ‘vision of art’ that [Fry] developed between the late 1880s and his death in 1934 crosses cultures and periods with a global thrust that ignores the cultural hierarchies of ‘high’ and ‘low’.” (Christopher Green) ”The most central lesson behind Roger Fry’s career is that art is democratic in the experience it offers” (Frances Spaldings) Rubin concludes: ”Fry acted as a democratizing force in the criticism and appreciation of art, and this accomplishment stands as his greatest legacy.” (237)