Fig. 1. Pears and Grapes on a Table, 1913
Fig. 2. Teacups, 1914
Fig. 3. Fantomas (Pipe and Newspaper), 1915
Fig. 4. Guitar and Score, 1915
Fig. 5. Still Life, 1915-16
Fig. 6. Still Life with Flask of Bordeaux, 1919
Fig. 7. Guitar and Clarinet, 1920
Fig. 8. The Mountain (Le Canigou), 1921
Fig. 9. The Open Window, 1921
Fig. 10. Guitar and Music Paper, 1926
'In aesthetics, as in all areas of philosophy, one can begin almost anywhere - with the objects of nature or the objects of art; with aesthetic production or reception; with aesthetic judgement or artistic imagination; with concepts of things or concepts of signs; with the existential, cognitive, or ethical meaning of aesthetic states. However one begins aesthetics, the important thing is to consider the interrelatedness of these and other phenomena. This also applies when when we are concerned predominantly with special phenomena - that is, in aesthetics, with literature or film, ornament or design, monochrome painting or minimal music. One type of aesthetic object enjoys its distinctiveness only in relation to other types, against which it stands out, to which it is related, with which it is in a process of exchange. Ultimately, this holds even for every individual aesthetic object - for this landscape, this building, this installation. Each enjoys its particularity in contrast to other (types of) objects. Theory can support this particularity (and thereby fulfil its most important task) only if it shows in what more general relations this particularity is located. It is only together with a sense of the general that the sense of the particular is there; only together with a concept of this general that it is possible to have an understanding of the multiplicity of aesthetic objects and opportunities. No matter how one begins aesthetics, what always matters in the end is to have a sense of the richness of aesthetic states.'
Martin Seel