1
2. Herbert Read
Prof Kenneth G. Hay
University of Leeds, UK
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Herbert Edward Read
n  b. 4 December 1893-
12 June 1968 in Muscoates, N.
Yorkshire
n  Art historian, poet, literary critic and
philosopher,
n  Numerous influential books on art,
education and anarchism.
n  Co-founder of the Institute of
Contemporary Arts (London). As
well as being a prominent English
anarchist, he was one of the earliest
English writers to take notice of
European philosophical trends such
as existentialism and Gestalt
Psychology.
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Herber Read - early life
n  His studies of law/
economics at Leeds
University interrupted by
WW1
n  During the war, Read
founded the journal
“Arts and Letters” with
Frank Rutter, one of the
first literary periodicals
to publish work by T. S.
Eliot.
H.Read, Green Howards,DSO, MC
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Read’s literary milieu
n  While on leave in London during the
War, he came into contact with key
figures of London’s literary and
artistic circles such as T. S. Eliot,
Edith Sitwell, Ezra Pound and
Wyndham Lewis.
n  After 1918, he continued his career
as a poet and literary critic.
n  From 1923 he contributed regularly
to T. S. Eliot’s journal ‘Criterion’.
n  He published with Leonard and
Virginia Woolf’s ‘Hogarth Press’
and became literary adviser to
Heinemann and Routledge and
Kegan Paul in 1937.
T.S.Eliot in 1934, Photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell
Dame Edith Sitwell photo by Cecil Beaton, 1962
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Read’s literary milieu
n  In the 1930s, Read befriended Mulk Raj Anand
and, met with Eric Gill and Stanley Morrison to
talk about art. Gill, the inventor of Gill Sans
Typeface amongst others, artist, printmaker and
sculptor executed a large stone relief for Leeds
University (1923).
n  Read also befriended Sri Lankan poet, M. J.
Tambimuttu, the founder-editor of ‘Poetry
London’.
n  Read contributed to the first edition of “Poetry
London” (1939), Tambimuttu’s “Poetry in
Wartime” (1942) and to the “Festschrift for
Marianne Moore’s Seventy-Seventh
Birthday” (1964), edited by Tambimuttu.Marianne Moore. Photograph: Esther Bubley/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Eric Gill as a young man. Ca. 1908
Eric Gill, “Christ driving the Moneychangers from the Temple” (1923)
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Herbert Read - Publications
n  By the 1950s and 60s,
Read had established
himself as a renowned
critic on literature and
the arts, his reputation
resting on several major
works. His publications
total more than 1000.
n  He died on 12 June
1968.
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Read’s forebears: Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945)
n  b. 1864 Winterthür
n  Succeeded his teacher Jacob
Burckhardt as Professor of art history at
Basle University. Worked at Universities
of Berlin (1901), Munich (1912) and
Zürich (1924).
n  He was interested, among other things in
the transition from Classicism to
Baroque, as well as in architecture, which
formed the subject of his Doctoral thesis:
“Prolegomenea to a psychology of
architecture” (1886) He also wrote:
“Renaissance and baroque” (1888)
n  His major text, “Principles of Art History”
is fundamental to the stylistic analysis of
art works, effectively inventing the
language by which such analysis was
carried out during the 20th-century.
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Wölfflin - Formalism
n  Wölfflin first studied philosophy, but his thesis was
in art history.
n  His approach to artworks is known as formalism
because he considered artworks as a result of
their external form, ie their style.
n  He was one of the first teachers to use twin slide
projection in his lectures to enable direct
comparison of examples side by side
n  It was largely due to his analysis of Renaissance
and Baroque artworks that he evolved his major
work, “Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe” (“The
Principles of Art History”, 1915), five pairs of
opposing concepts through which he was able to
describe the differences in form between
Renaissance and Baroque artworks:
n  Linear and painterly;
n  Plane and Recession;
n  Closed and Open form;
n  Multiplicity and Unity;
n  Clearness and unclearness;
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Wölfflin - Formalism
n  Heinrich Wölfflin is generally considered
as the first art historian in the modern
conception of the term, and he occupied
the first Chair of Art History, created
specially for him at the University of
Basel. He also taught at the Universities
of Berlin, Munich and Zürich.
n  His students included Sigfried Giedion,
historian of 19th-century architecture, and
author of “Space, Time and
Architecture”(1941), the key text which
influenced Walter Gropius and Le
Corbusier and helped to define the
modern movement in architecture. Ernst
Gombrich whose “The Story of Art’
became the fundamental art history book;
and Naum Gabo (Constructivist sculptor
and member of the Bauhaus).
Seigried Giedion, “Space, Time and Architecture” (1941)
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David Hume - Causal theory of
Beauty
n  Read’s aesthetic theories have their
roots in the work of Scottish
empiricist and sceptic David Hume.
n  For Hume, beauty may be a quality
of objects and not itself a feeling but
this quality is identified in us by
the feelings it causes in us. Hume
says that, “Beauty is such an order
and satisfaction of parts as is fitted
to give a pleasure and satisfaction
to the soul..beauty is nothing but a
form, which produces a pleasure, as
deformity is a structure of parts,
which conveys pain..”.
n  (Hume, “A Treatise on Human
Nature”, p.299)
David Hume, (1711-1776)
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Edmund Burke: “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of
our ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful” (1756)
n  Burke’s “Enquiry” also
contains a causal theory
of Beauty:
n  “By Beauty, I mean,
that quality or those
qualities in bodies by
which they cause love,
or some passion similar
to it.” (“Enquiry”, p.91)
Edmund Burke, Statesman, orator and author, (1729-1797)
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The Meaning of Art (1931)
n  In the 1930s Read reiterated a causal
theory of beauty, claiming that there
exist: “Pleasing forms’ which ‘satisfy
our sense of beauty’, as a matter of
cause and effect”.
n  Art is ‘pattern informed by sensibility’.
n  The most general law in nature is equitythe
principle of balance and symmetry
which guides the growth of forms along
the lines of the greatest structural
efficiency.
n  Different works of art may possess
‘beauty’ but the term cannot be the only
criterion for art - An Ivory Coast tribal idol
is not ‘beautiful’ in the same way as a
Greek classical sculpture, but may have
other aesthetic qualities which renders it
artistic. For Wittgenstein, the word
‘beauty’ is hardly helpful - he prefers
terms like ‘right’ or ‘correct’..
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Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
n  Wittgenstein rejects the causal theory of Beauty.
n  For him, feelings of pleasure or discomfort
amounted to a double statement:
n  One might describe something as beautiful or
ugly because one felt a pleasurable sensation
caused by certain qualities of the object;
n  But for Wittgenstein, aesthetic descriptions are
descriptions of the objects themselves and not
of their causal powers with regard to sensations.
There appear to be two things going on here in
the soul: discomfort at something, and knowing
its cause..
n  Aesthetic descriptions are descriptions of the
objects themselves and not of their causal
powers with regard to sensations.
n  If the point of listening to a certain minuet is to
get a certain effect - then any other minuet
which produced this effect would do as well.
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“The Meaning of Art”
n  Together with Worringer’s and
Wolfflin’s theories of formal abstraction,
Read was also convinced by
psychological, and psychoanalytic
theories, from Freud to Jung, which were
simultaneously influencing the work of
the Surrealists, and through them, Henry
Moore, and Picasso.
n  “Freud has shown one thing very clearly:
that we only forget our infancy by burying
it in the unconscious; and that the
problems of this difficult period find their
solution under a disguised form in adult
life”.
n  The book provides a concise history of
world art from ‘primitive’ cave painting
through to Jackson Pollock, and
summarises period styles such as Gothic,
Baroque, Impressionism, Expressionism,
Surrealism and Tachism.
Herbert Read, founder of the Institute of
Contemporary Arts. Photograph: Hulton Getty
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Art and Industry (1936)
n  Published in 1936, the book was seminal in the
establishment of Industrial Design in the UK.
n  Read was Director of the first design
consultancy in the UK, The Design Research
Unit
n  Read proposes a reappraisal of industrial design
which takes into account previous traditions of
manufacture and craft whilst acknowledging the
potentials and capacity of modern machinery
For more than a hundred years an attempt has
been made to impose on the products of
machinery aesthetic values which are not only
irrelevant, but generally costly and harmful to
efficiency.
n  Previous attempts by J. Ruskin and W.Morris,
used the superficial styles and mannerisms of
the Renaissance tradition or ornament.
n  For Read, the real problem is not to adapt
machine production to the aesthetic standards of
handicraft, but to think out new aesthetic
standards for new methods of production.
n  In other words, what is required as a preliminary
to any practical solution of the division existing
between art and industry is a clear
understanding, not only of the processes of
modern production, but also of the nature of art..
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The Philosophy of Modern Art (1952/64)
n  A collection of 16 essays on modern art, humanism, realism and
abstraction, Surrealism and Constructivism, as well as individual
essays on Gauguin, Picasso, Klee, Paul Nash, Henry Moore,
Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner.
n  The book helped to situate the UK modernist tradition in the
context of European mainstream modernism.
n  Read was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of
existentialism, and was strongly influenced by protoexistentialist
thinker Max Stirner.
n  In the earlier “The Education of Free Men” (1944) Read argues
that: In all things, moral and intellectual, we should act on the
belief that we really possess only what we have conquered
ourselves that we are made perfect by natural habits, but slaves
by social conventions; and that until we have become
accustomed to beauty we are not capable of truth and
goodness, for by beauty we mean the principle of harmony
which is the given order of the physical universe, to which we
conform and live, or which we reject and die (p. 25).
n  For Read Art is a ‘mode of knowledge’, and is ‘as valuable to
man as the world of philosophy or the world of science’. In
‘Icon and Idea (1955) he makes the bold claim that art too
expands the world ‘with new facts’.
n  Over time our civilisation has lost sight of art’s power and
purpose, and it is the function of contemporary art to restore this
n  For Read, the fact that the previous functions and markets for
art are now closed (magic, religion, private patronage) has the
hidden benefit that artists are now free to concentrate on
exploring what Read called ‘the expansion of consciousness’ the
conscious and unconscious domain.
n  Read sees this exploration of consciousness as the real core of
all art activity from Lascaux onwards.
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Wilhelm Worringer (1881-1965)
n  b. Aix-la-Chapelle.
n  Studied Art History under Heinrich Rückert, Georg
Simmel and Heinrich Wölfflin. In 1907, he completed his
doctoral thesis, under Artur Weese at the University of
Berne, “Abstraction an Empathy”, published in Munich
in 1908.
n  In 1911he published his second major essay: The
“Problem of Form in Gothic”, which defined Gothic art by
‘the primitive (=essential) geometric line which contained
no organic expression.’
n  Building on Alois Riegl, he was at the heart of a nascent
theory of modernism in 1914 in Europe, identified, by Otto
Rank, as ‘expressionism’, who saw it as integral to the
development of European
n  For Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari, Worringer is the first
to characterise abstraction as a primary form - in nature
and in the common forms of representation in all cultures
n  In England, he exerted a strong influence on T. E. Hulme
(1883-1917), poet et critic behind the Vorticist movement,
n  For Read, Worringer’s distinction between abstraction
and empathy (feeling-into) is correlated with the
introverted and extraverted attitudes observed by C.Jung,
and provides the link between the psychological theory of
types differentiated by Jaensch and Jung, and the
function of imagery in “Education through Art”
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Worringer: “Abstraction and Empathy”
n  “Abstraction and Empathy A Contribution to the
Psychology of Style” (1908)
n  Worringer's classic study argues that in
historical periods of anxiety and uncertainty,
man seeks to abstract objects from their
unpredictable state and transform them into
absolute, transcendental forms.
n  Read found Worringer’s ideas fundamental to
an understanding of the formal structure of
contemporary art such as Henry Moore and
Picasso, where the ‘recognisable’ or realist
elements were subordinated to abstract/formal
expression.
n  Read became interested in children’s drawings
after having been invited to curate an exhibition
to tour neutral countries during the war. Because
it was deemed too dangerous to transport
established works across the Atlantic, Read
chose the work of children instead, and Read
became unexpectedly moved by their
expressive power and emotional content.
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“Education through Art” (1961)
n  One result was this book., which advocates the use of artistic
expression as the foundation of education, based on
sociological, psychological, and philosophical grounds.
n  Aims simply to translate Plato’s original idea into
contemporary terms
n  The ‘delay’ in following Plato’s lead has been caused by
subsequent misunderstandings about what art is and what
the rôle of education is.
n  On the latter; there are two opinions: that education should
train the student to be what s/he is (innately/individualistic);
the other is that it should train them to be what they are not
(for society’s ends).
n  Only Schiller so far has understood and reiterated Plato’s
plea.
n  A libertarian conception of education sees its purpose to
develop the uniqueness, the social consciousness or
reciprocity of the individual.
n  For sure, we are all genetically unique, and this uniqueness
may be of small or greater value to the community into which
we are born: “It may be only a unique way of speaking or of
smiling…or it may be a unique way of seeing, thinking, of
inventing, of expressing mind or emotion - and in that case,
one man’s individuality may be of incalculable benefit to the
whole of humanity.” (p.5)
n  Uniqueness, however, is of no use in isolation, and the task
of education is to channel this uniqueness towards the social
unity.
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“Education through Art” (1961)
n  To this extent, education also has a moral purpose - to
differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘useful for
society’ and ‘not useful/harmful for society’
n  Except that this implies direction ‘from a centre’ / point of
authority, which Read is anxious to avoid.
n  Instead he argues that the encouragement of the positive
aspect, inevitably eliminates the negative. Ie if children are
encouraged towards the positive direction, they will have no
interest in the opposite.
n  “Freedom.. is a state of being with positive characteristics..to
be developed in all their self-sufficiency” (p.6) - We avoid
hate, by loving.
n  Plato: “Avoid compulsion, and let your children’s lessons
take the form of play. This will also help you to see what they
are naturally fitted for” (Republic, VII, 536).
n  Rousseau also established freedom as the guiding principle
of Education, and after him, John Dewey and Edmond
Holmes integrated the theory of education with a democratic
conception of society.
n  Read adds his own concern for psychological ‘orienation’ as
a key goal of education: to enable the individual psyche of the
student to find its positive place in the societal whole; which is
to be attained by attention to a broad aesthetic education (in
diverse media - writing, music, art, creativity)
n  “The education of those senses upon which consciousness,
and ultimately the intelligence and judgment of the human
individual , are based” (p.7)
n  It is only in so far as these senses are brought into
harmonious and habitual relationship with the external world
that an integrated personality is built up” p.7)
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“Education through Art” (1961)
n  Taking his lead from Freud, Jung and Gestalt
Psychology, Read sees the unconscious ‘somatic’
level and the subconscious as two important wellsprings
of experience, images and ideas which are
usually neglected, but which need to be tapped into
if a holistic education is to be achieved.
n  The five senses are the locus of six types of
knowledge and experience, (Visual, Touch, Ear,
Muscles, Speech,Thought) and correspond to four
main functions of our mental processes: Sensation,
(Design), Intuition,(Music/Dance), Feeling (Poetry/
Drama) and Thought (Craft). (This idea corresponds
loosely to that of Dewey, who spoke of our various
‘Instincts’ - to communicate, dance, sing, draw
etc..)
n  Importantly, Read does not distinguish science from
art and sees the artificial boundaries erected
between them as counter-productive:
“Art is the representation, science the explanation of
the same reality.”
n  As all aspects of life are experienced through these
above processes, Read argues that: “The aim of
education is therefore the creation of artists - of
people efficient in the various modes of expression”
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“Education through Art” (1961)
n  For an understanding of Gestalt Psychology, Read points
us to Wolfgang Koehler’s “The Place of Value in a World
of Facts” (1940), and Rudolph Arnheim’s “Art and Visual
Perception” (1954).
n  For Read, Gestalt Psychology explains why one form is
preferred to others, and why, form, as against chaos, exists
at all.
n  In subsequent chapters, Read discusses the definition of
art as a form-making activity, driven by the impulse to
create and involving perception and imagination.
n  In Temperament and Expression, Read rejects a unified
concept of ‘human nature’ in favour of one which
addresses different ‘character types’, as revealed by the
child’s innate modes of plastic expression. (E.Kretschner
and W.H.Sheldon, E.R.F.Jaensch and C.Jung). He also
relates these types to the impulses motivating ancient and
Modern Art (p.97)
n  In The Art Of Children, Read explores expression through
play, which encourages spontaneity and inspiration in
problem solving, and traces the developmental stages of
children’s drawing from early scribbling to the beginnings
of symbolic representation
n  The rest of the book discusses the Unconscious, art
teaching, discipline and morality, the teacher, the
environment of the school,concluding with a restatement of
the importance of a holistic/ aesthetic education for the
proper development of society at large.
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Anarchy and Order (1974)
n  If the individual is a unit in a corporate
mass, his life is not merely brutish and
short, but dull and mechanical.
n  To realize that new world we must prefer
the values of freedom and equality above
all other values - above personal wealth,
technical power and nationalism.
n  The assumption is that the right kind of
society is an organic being not merely
analogous to an organic being, but
actually a living structure with appetites
and digestions, instincts and passions,
intelligence and reason.
n  The farther a society progresses, the
more clearly the individual becomes the
antithesis of the group
n  Morality, as has often been pointed out,
is antecedent to religion-it even exists in
a rudimentary form among animals.
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“To Hell with Culture” (1963)
n  “It does not seem that the contradiction
which exists between the aristocratic
function of art and the democratic
structure of modern society can ever be
resolved”.
n  The, at times controversial, book tackles
a wide range of topics from revolutionary
art to pornography.
n  Read challenges accepted wisdom and
subverts any supposed voice of authority
in favour of a free-thinking and fresh
approach to politics and culture.
n  Only by questioning ‘received wisdom;
says Read, can we appreciate the art that
arises from, “the unpolitical manifestation
of the human spirit.”
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The Green Child (1935)
n  His only work of fiction, “The Green Child,” was published in
1935 and defies easy classification.
n  Non-linear in structure, it is divided into three parts, each
distinct enough to be its own book. All three parts end with the
suggested death of Olivero, (president of an unnamed South
American country), symbolising his passing into another realm
of life, or consciousness.
n  In the first part, Olivero returns to the English village of his
childhood. All is unchanged, except for the stream, which now
appears to run uphill. He follows it up to its mouth, where he
discovers a woman being tortured by a sadistic husband; from
her skin colour, he recognises her as one of two "green children"
who had turned up in the village on the day he left. He secures
her release and she leads him below the surface of the water,
into the labyrinth of her lost people.
n  The second part is a memoir of Olivero's adventures in South
America and his imprisonment, political ascension and
subsequent stagnation of his leadership, prompting him to fake
his own death.
n  The third part explores the subterranean Utopia into which
Olivero and the green child descend. In this world, time and
reality are replaced by four "ledges" of meaning. The highest is
meditation, and Olivero begins to prepare his body (once more)
for death.
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“The worth of a civilization or a culture
is not valued in the terms of its material
wealth or military power, but by the
quality and achievements of its
representative individuals - its
philosophers, its poets and its artists”.