What is the purpose of art? In this powerful little book, Leo Tolstoy makes the case that art is a means of communicating feelings. In What is Art? Tolstoy describes the essence of art as the event in which the state of mind of the artist infects the perceiver. Art occurs when the spectator, reader or listener actually feels what the artist is feeling. In this sharing of feeling, the perceiver experiences the joy of union with the artist and with any others who are similarly appreciating the art. According to Tolstoy, art unifies people in a common inner vision. "Art," Tolstoy declares, "is a means of communication, and therefore also of (the) progress¿of mankind's movement forward toward perfection." Art is created in service of the evolution of feelings, from more coarse and self-centered to more subtle, expansive and compassionate. Art for Tolstoy, as for his contemporary Wasilly Kandinsky, serves our spiritual growth.