»Why Form?«

Abstract

In the introductory part of the article the author presents some of the historical differences in the interpretation of form, which originate already in the translation of the term from Greek into Latin. He then deals with form in formalism and in modernism and points to the difference between the inner and the outer form. It is in our century that form becomes opposed to content. Postmodernism reinstitutes the outer form and in this respect essentially differs from modernism. In author's opinion with postmodernism the visual arts become the dominant ones. Therefore he sees the problem of form as one of the crucial contemporary theoretical issues.