Theoria remains the most comprehensive account of Neo-Romantic aesthetics currently available. Tracing the lineage of of spiritual and ecological values in the Western world back to John Ruskin and fellow Victorian socialists such as William Morris. With the resurgence of secular spiritual values making their way into mainstream culture with the likes of Russell Brand, the posthumous influence of spiritual philosopher Alan Watts and Victorian polemicist John Ruskin featuring prominently in two international motion pictures "Mr. Turner" and "Effie Gray", Theoria makes a timely return with this new edition updated for the digital age. Featuring a New Foreword and introductory essay from Peter Fuller's son, the actor Laurence Ruskin Fuller.
"April 28 marks 25 years since since the car crash that claimed my father's life and left a gash in the canvas of my generation. Looking back at the man who came before me, in the philosophy of Fuller, I see the light he cast for us in the darkness of the post-cyber revolution... As sophisticated as Western culture has become, conquest over nature only leads to our own destruction, as we are of nature. thus placing value on the human spirit, skilled expressions of sentience in our advancing mediums are the most subversive acts of all." - Radicals On Film: The Intertwining Legacies of John Ruskin & Peter Fuller by Laurence Fuller first published in Modern Painters April 2015
Peter Fuller was like a punch in the guts to the art world from 1969-1990, and until his last breathe he was a radical. His writings spanned art history, psychology, sociology, Marxism, aesthetics, biology, and religion. All emanating from his primary fascination with the arts. His ideas were ahead of his time, punctuated throughout with a belief that cultural reformation was possible through art. By the time of his early death in 1990 at the age of 42, he had already authored 15 books on aesthetics in Western culture, including Art & Psychoanalysis, Beyond The Crisis In Art, Aesthetic After Modernism and Images Of God. Initially a protege of the Marxist critic John Berger, in his later years Fuller was held up as the successor to John Ruskin. Fuller can claim this authoritative stance as a well earned position; possibly one of the only people in the world to have read Ruskin's complete works, his documentary on Ruskin Memories Of The Future (made with long-time collaborator Mike Dibb) remains one of the only comprehensive documentaries on Ruskin's intellectual pursuits. in 1987 he founded the international art journal Modern Painters magazine, (currently owned by Louis Blouin), naming after the series of books published by Ruskin. On the magazine's release the art critic Brian Sewell wrote 'Only Peter Fuller, now that he is editor of Modern Painters, could play Ruskin and influence the course of painting in this country or change the nation's taste.'
"The light that Peter Fuller brought was more like lightening than day or lamp-light. And more like heat lightning than the other kind; it doesn't always strike a ground object. And it could be Fuliginous too, which is incompatible with any kind of lightning. Yet it illuminated. " - Clement Greenberg
"Peter Fuller was a difficult and uncompromising adversary... And yet Peter was also an immensely positive force, causing us all to question our beliefs and to justify our position in a way that was ultimately strengthening" - Nicholas Serota
"[Peter] believed to his depths that art mattered, that it held within it a means of enlargement of heart for us all" - Sister Wendy Beckett
"In its passionate conviction and breadth of argument, [Fuller's] writing was most appealing when it was most infuriating. " - John McDonald
"The most impressive art critic working in Britain in his time" - Waldemar Januszczak
"April 28 marks 25 years since since the car crash that claimed my father's life and left a gash in the canvas of my generation. Looking back at the man who came before me, in the philosophy of Fuller, I see the light he cast for us in the darkness of the post-cyber revolution... As sophisticated as Western culture has become, conquest over nature only leads to our own destruction, as we are of nature. thus placing value on the human spirit, skilled expressions of sentience in our advancing mediums are the most subversive acts of all." - Radicals On Film: The Intertwining Legacies of John Ruskin & Peter Fuller by Laurence Fuller first published in Modern Painters April 2015
Peter Fuller was like a punch in the guts to the art world from 1969-1990, and until his last breathe he was a radical. His writings spanned art history, psychology, sociology, Marxism, aesthetics, biology, and religion. All emanating from his primary fascination with the arts. His ideas were ahead of his time, punctuated throughout with a belief that cultural reformation was possible through art. By the time of his early death in 1990 at the age of 42, he had already authored 15 books on aesthetics in Western culture, including Art & Psychoanalysis, Beyond The Crisis In Art, Aesthetic After Modernism and Images Of God. Initially a protege of the Marxist critic John Berger, in his later years Fuller was held up as the successor to John Ruskin. Fuller can claim this authoritative stance as a well earned position; possibly one of the only people in the world to have read Ruskin's complete works, his documentary on Ruskin Memories Of The Future (made with long-time collaborator Mike Dibb) remains one of the only comprehensive documentaries on Ruskin's intellectual pursuits. in 1987 he founded the international art journal Modern Painters magazine, (currently owned by Louis Blouin), naming after the series of books published by Ruskin. On the magazine's release the art critic Brian Sewell wrote 'Only Peter Fuller, now that he is editor of Modern Painters, could play Ruskin and influence the course of painting in this country or change the nation's taste.'
"The light that Peter Fuller brought was more like lightening than day or lamp-light. And more like heat lightning than the other kind; it doesn't always strike a ground object. And it could be Fuliginous too, which is incompatible with any kind of lightning. Yet it illuminated. " - Clement Greenberg
"Peter Fuller was a difficult and uncompromising adversary... And yet Peter was also an immensely positive force, causing us all to question our beliefs and to justify our position in a way that was ultimately strengthening" - Nicholas Serota
"[Peter] believed to his depths that art mattered, that it held within it a means of enlargement of heart for us all" - Sister Wendy Beckett
"In its passionate conviction and breadth of argument, [Fuller's] writing was most appealing when it was most infuriating. " - John McDonald
"The most impressive art critic working in Britain in his time" - Waldemar Januszczak
