Marks of Imagination
The joy of beauty

This book is concerned with some of those who use their imagination in pursuit of beauty, namely painters and photographers; it is concerned with their colours, their paints and their paintings. And then there are the thinkers, of course, who have been racking their brains for thousands of years, trying to work out exactly what constitutes beauty. This book offers its own solution in this respect. It shows us that beauty is all around us. We simply need to discover it and take pleasure in it. It would almost seem that every generation has its own ideal of beauty. What waves of indignation were stirred up when, 130 years ago, the Impressionists presented their new way of seeing the world! The public had hardly had time to digest that “revolution” than the Expressionists came along and called everything into question yet again. Half a century was to pass before people had grown accustomed to them. And by then it was time for action painting, Pop Art, Op Art and Minimal Art, for rock music and happenings. What was that all about? Was it supposed to be beautiful? 40 years ago, some people were not sure about that. Nowadays, everyone knows: it was indeed beautiful!