Synopses & Reviews
Contemporary
discussions of the image like to emphasize art's societal functions. Few
studies come close to answering why pictures and sculptures fascinate and
intrigue regardless of any practical functions they might serve. In this
original, thought-provoking study, Paul Crowther reveals the intrinsic
significance of pictures and sculptures.
To address the
question of how painting becomes an art, Crowther uses the analytic philosophy
of Richard Wollheim as a starting point. But to sufficiently answer the
question, he makes an important link to a tradition much more successful in
giving voice to the deeper ontology of visual art - existential phenomenology.
The result is a work that demonstrates the
reciprocal relationship between phenomenology and analytic aesthetics. To
expand its ontological scope and solve the problem of expression, analytic aesthetics
needs phenomenology; while to develop a sustained, critically balanced, and
intellectually available ontology, phenomenology needs the discursive force and
lucidity of analytic philosophy. This convincing case for a post-analytic
phenomenology of art is an important advancement of contemporary discussions of
the philosophy of art.
Synopsis
An original study of the intrinsic significance of art, drawing on ideas, thinkers and approaches from phenomenology and analytic aesthetics.
About the Author
Paul Crowther is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments \
Introduction \
1. Painting as an Art: Wollheim and the Subjective Dimension \
2. Abstract Art and Transperceptual Space: Wolheim, and Beyond \
3. Truth in Art: Heidegger Against Contextualism \
4. Space, Place, and Sculpture: Heidegger's Pathways \
5. Vision in Being: Merleau-Ponty and the Depths of Painting \
6. Subjectivity, the Gaze,
and the Picture: Developing Lacan \
7. Dimensions in Time: Dufrenne's Phenomenology of Pictorial Art \
Conclusion: A Preface to Post-Analytic
Phenomenology \
Bibliography \
Index