Reprint. Originally published: New York : Wittenborn, Schultz, 1948.
Translation of: Vie des formes.
In this text, Focillon insists that art and its meanings are an inherently dynamic system and that the history of art is one of instabilities, fluctuations and discontinuities. Artworks are never static empirical entities or pure optical presences but rather the virtual traces of a ceaseless process of becoming.