# STYLE AND THE PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES OF ART **Opening (not a real abstract):** A curious fact about our concept of style is that we seem unable to make up our minds about what sorts of things have styles. Works of art—paintings, plays, buildings, sculptures, operas—are said to be in one or another style, and so are objects such as bathing suits, neckties, and automobiles. But we often think of styles as ways of doing things, ways of performing actions. There are styles of teaching, styles of travel, styles of chess playing, and styles of selling insurance. Are styles attributes of objects, or of actions? James Ackerman regards them as attributes of objects, of works of art: In the study of the arts, works—not institutions or people—are the primary data; in them we must find certain characteristics that are more or less stable . . ., and flexible. . . . A distinguishable ensemble of such characteristics we call a style.1