I would simply ask why so many critics, so many writers, so many philosophers take such satisfaction in professing that the experience of a work of art is ineffable, that it escapes by definition all rational understanding; why are they so eager to concede without a struggle the defeat of knowledge; and where does their irrepressible need to belittle rational understanding come from, this rage to affirm the irreducibility of the work of art, or, to use a more suitable word, its transcendence. Pierre Bourdieu
About This Quote

Without the need of rational understanding, we would be unable to learn anything from art. We would be unable to derive any meaning from art. We would be unable to benefit from the experience of art. Art is not meant for our understanding, but for our enjoyment and expression.

This quote seems to get at something that many people get wrong about art: art is not meant for us to understand it, but to enjoy it and derive meaning from it. This is why we can still think about a work of art years after we first saw it and still derive meaning from it, and this is why we can look at a work of art and still enjoy it all over again years later. This quote takes the notion that the experience of art cannot be expressed or understood, and says that instead, art can be enjoyed and has meaning that transcends understanding.

This quote also seems to indicate that the purpose of art is not for us to understand it but to enjoy it.

Source: The Rules Of Art: Genesis And Structure Of The Literary Field

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More Quotes By Pierre Bourdieu
  1. I would simply ask why so many critics, so many writers, so many philosophers take such satisfaction in professing that the experience of a work of art is ineffable, that it escapes by definition all rational understanding; why are they so eager to concede without...
  2. Music is the 'pure' art par excellence. It says nothing and has nothing to say. Never really having an expressive function, it is opposed to drama, which even in its most refined forms still bears a social message and can only be 'put over' on...
  3. Thus, for an adequate interpretation of the differences found between the classes or within the same class as regards their relation to the various legitimate arts, painting, music, theatre, literature etc., one would have to analyse fully the social uses, legitimate or illegitimate, to which...
  4. The mind is a metaphor of the world of objects.
  5. Male domination is so rooted in our collective unconscious that we no longer even see it.
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