‘‘[A] passionate and cerebral work . . . Draws a line from the past to the conundrum at hand today . . . A thought-provoking exploration into the limits and liberation that art can impose and unlock. Creatives in any field should give this a serious look.’’——Publishers Weekly
‘‘A wide-ranging study of the nature and meaning of artistic creation [examining] the tension between the 'ordering impulse' of authority and the freedom to experiment and play . . . A thoughtful meditation on the transcendence of art.’’——Kirkus Reviews
‘‘A powerful argument against the politicization and trivialization of the arts. Jed Perl reminds us how much we need artists to illuminate our experience and help us understand our world.’’——Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy
‘‘In his commanding reflections, Jed Perl illumines and resolves the riddle of contradiction through a credo of linked opposites: authority and freedom. Michelangelo adheres to the ancient architectural tenets of Vitruvius while at the same time dazzling with innovation. Aretha Franklin is heir to the rhythmic old framework of Gospel singing, yet distills from it tones and concentrations of her own. How forerunner genius collaborates with newborn genius is the lambent theme of Authority and Freedom. Taking his turn in the long, long chronicle of art criticism, Perl stands today as our generation's most masterly re-maker of genius.’’——Cynthia Ozick, author of Antiquities and The Puttermesser Papers
‘‘Jed Perl makes a persuasive argument for a kind of 'middle way' in the arts, one that is neither strictly formalist nor identitarian. Perl wants us to pay close attention to how works of art are actually made, and he outlines the ways in which artists of widely divergent temperaments, backgrounds, and histories engage with, or against, the material forms of their disciplines.’’——David Salle, painter and author of How to See
‘‘Jed Perl argues persuasively, passionately, and beautifully that 'art for art's sake' is art for everyone's sake--for everything's sake. Our cultural and political future depend on it. Authority and Freedom is a crucial avatar of the liberal spirit--and an insatiable polemic of democratic love.’’——Joshua Cohen, author of Book of Numbers and The Netanyahus
"This is a book about the creativity of artists and the discipline of art. Jed Perl's beautiful account of the 'making' of novels, plays, paintings, concertos, songs, and performances of all sorts, is a tribute to the makers. But it isn't written for them. It is written for the rest of us, who read, listen, look, and watch, and its achievement is, as Auden wrote, 'to teach the free man how to praise' (the free woman, too).’’——Michael Walzer, author of Just and Unjust Wars
