On The Characteristics Of Art Criticism Of Roger Fry

Standing on the turn-point from classic to modern art, Roger Fry called loudly for breaking out the tradition of representation in painting, while looked often back with respects to classic principles, for example, by paying much attention on unity or harmony. These two basic tendencies, which seem somewhat contrary to each other, made Fry's criticism thoughts fairly rich and complex."Plastic", a term largely used in Fry's articles, played a central role in Fry's formalism criticism. His discussions on color, silhouette and line all aimed at and were directed to the problem of plastic. There we know that his so called form related not only to the object, but also to artist's feeling or spirit experiences, imagination and sensitivity. Fry evolved his art criticism thoughts in arguing for post-impressionism, especially for Cezanne, and in his interpretation of Cezanne's work. This paper carefully analyzed the content of Fry's formalism criticism with an attempt to rendering its details , mainly depending on his interpretation of Cezanne.