Vision and Design (1920) collects the essays of Roger Fry, the critic who introduced Post-Impressionism to Britain and championed the formal qualities of art over its subject matter. Ranging from Cézanne and African sculpture to Giotto and the aesthetics of ancient and Asian art, Fry argues that the value of a work lies in its design—its arrangement of form, line, and color.
Lucid and persuasive, the book shaped twentieth-century taste and the language of modern art criticism. It remains a landmark of formalist thought and an essential text of modernism. This free EPUB download is cleanly formatted for any e-reader.