Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the frame)

Paul Crowther

Published by Stanford University Press 2009

Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the frame)

Paul Crowther

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804772983

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why are the visual arts so important and what is it that makes their forms significant? Countering recent interpretations of meaning that understand visual artworks on the model of literary texts, Crowther formulates a theory of the visual arts based on what their creation achieves both cognitively and aesthetically. He develops a phenomenology that emphasizes how visual art gives unique aesthetic expression to factors that are basic to perception. At the same time, he shows how various artistic media embody these factors in distinctive ways. Attentive to both the creation and reception of all major visual art forms (picturing, sculpture, architecture, and photography), Phenomenology of the Visual Arts also addresses complex idioms, including abstract, conceptual, and digital art.

Author / Editor information

Paul Crowther is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is the author of a number of books, including the recent Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt (2007).

Reviews

"This is perhaps the most systematic phenomenological theory of the visual arts ever written. A book of philosophic meditation that makes direct contact with art history and art criticism, it will be the center of discussion and controversy by a very wide range of contemporary art historians, critics, artists, and theorists." —James Elkins, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the frame) speaks to the present moment of speculation about visual art, both by the critique of currently prominent art theories and by giving a convincing new theory that is at once more generous and more nuanced than previous efforts. Highly original and yet confirmatory of virtually every experience of art, this book is a singular contribution to contemporary theory of the visual arts." —Edward S. Casey, SUNY at Stony Brook

"This book should interest a variety of scholars with a theoretical interest in the visual arts. The book addresses pictures, sculpture, abstract art conceptual art, photography, digital art, and architecture... Recommended"—J. O. Young Choice.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Against reductionism: the intrinsic significance of the image Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. Figure, plane, and frame: the phenomenology of pictorial space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
3. Pictorial representation and self-consciousness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
4. The presence of the painter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
5. Sculpture and transcendence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
6. The logic and phenomenology of abstract art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
7. The logic of Conceptualism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
8. The phenomenology of photography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
9. Ontology and aesthetics of digital art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
10. The body of architecture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Conclusion. Art history and art practice— some future possibilities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 264
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 26

eBook

Published: September 16, 2009
ISBN: 9780804772983