Description
By: Jed Perl
From one of our most widely admired art critics comes a bold and timely manifesto reaffirming the independence of all the arts—musical, literary, and visual—and their unique and unparalleled power to excite, disturb, and inspire us.
As people look to the arts to promote a particular ideology, whether radical, liberal, or conservative, Jed Perl argues that the arts have their own laws and logic, which transcend the controversies of any one moment. “Art’s relevance,” he writes, “has everything to do with what many regard as its irrelevance.” Authority and Freedom will find readers from college classrooms to foundation board meetings—wherever the arts are confronting social, political, and economic ferment and heated debates about political correctness and cancel culture.
Perl embraces the work of creative spirits as varied as Mozart, Michelangelo, Jane Austen, Henry James, Picasso, and Aretha Franklin. He contends that the essence of the arts is their ability to free us from fixed definitions and categories. Art is inherently uncategorizable—that’s the key to its importance. Taking his stand with artists and thinkers ranging from W. H. Auden to Hannah Arendt, Perl defends works of art as adventuresome dialogues, simultaneously dispassionate and impassioned. He describes the fundamental sense of vocation—the engagement with the tools and traditions of a medium—that gives artists their purpose and focus. Whether we’re experiencing a poem, a painting, or an opera, it’s the interplay between authority and freedom—what Perl calls “the lifeblood of the arts”—that fuels the imaginative experience. This book will be essential reading for everybody who cares about the future of the arts in a democratic society.
From one of our most widely admired art critics comes a bold and timely manifesto reaffirming the independence of all the arts—musical, literary, and visual—and their unique and unparalleled power to excite, disturb, and inspire us.
As people look to the arts to promote a particular ideology, whether radical, liberal, or conservative, Jed Perl argues that the arts have their own laws and logic, which transcend the controversies of any one moment. “Art’s relevance,” he writes, “has everything to do with what many regard as its irrelevance.” Authority and Freedom will find readers from college classrooms to foundation board meetings—wherever the arts are confronting social, political, and economic ferment and heated debates about political correctness and cancel culture.
Perl embraces the work of creative spirits as varied as Mozart, Michelangelo, Jane Austen, Henry James, Picasso, and Aretha Franklin. He contends that the essence of the arts is their ability to free us from fixed definitions and categories. Art is inherently uncategorizable—that’s the key to its importance. Taking his stand with artists and thinkers ranging from W. H. Auden to Hannah Arendt, Perl defends works of art as adventuresome dialogues, simultaneously dispassionate and impassioned. He describes the fundamental sense of vocation—the engagement with the tools and traditions of a medium—that gives artists their purpose and focus. Whether we’re experiencing a poem, a painting, or an opera, it’s the interplay between authority and freedom—what Perl calls “the lifeblood of the arts”—that fuels the imaginative experience. This book will be essential reading for everybody who cares about the future of the arts in a democratic society.
You may also like
熱銷中 Top Trending

Press Start! #16 Super Rabbit Boy vs. the Gigabot!(Branches)
Sale priceHK$48.00
Regular priceHK$98.00
In stock
Yamal (Ultimate Football Heroes - The No.1 football series)
Sale priceHK$57.00
Regular priceHK$98.00
In stock
National Geographic Kids Almanac 2026 (International Edition)
Sale priceHK$105.00
Regular priceHK$160.00
In stock
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder 3-Book Collection (Holly Jackson)
Sale priceHK$159.00
Regular priceHK$323.60
In stock
InvestiGators: Agents of S.U.I.T. #03: Wild Ghost Chase
Sale priceHK$69.00
Regular priceHK$140.00
In stock
A Minecraft Movie: The Junior Novelization (Mojang AB)
Sale priceHK$67.00
Regular priceHK$104.00
In stock
Dork Diaries #13 Birthday Drama! (Rachel Renee Russell)
Sale priceHK$67.00
Regular priceHK$104.00
In stock
365 Days of Jokes: A Year of the Funniest Jokes Ever!
Sale priceHK$70.00
Regular priceHK$110.00
In stock
Billy and the Mini Monsters #17 Monsters Go Back to School
Sale priceHK$55.00
Regular priceHK$98.00
In stock
Cat & Cat Adventures #03 Journey into Unibear City (Susie Yi)
Sale priceHK$59.00
Regular priceHK$90.00
In stock
Spidey and His Amazing Friends: Team Spidey Does It All!
Sale priceHK$39.00
Regular priceHK$60.00
In stock