The Philosophy of the Visual Arts

Edited by Philip A. Alperson

This innovative text provides a systematic introduction to philosophical problems concerning the visual arts, and the institutions that sustain them. Stressing conceptual and theoretical issues, the collection first examines the very notion of "the visual arts" and then investigates questions raised by various art forms, from painting, the paradigmatic visual art, to architecture, sculpture, and the more controversial modern forms of photography and film, and the borders of the arts spectrum, including kitsch, dance, the circus, body beautification, and the appreciation of the natural environment. The selections represent both classical and contemporary views and include works by artists, art historians, and critics as well as philosophers.

The Philosophy of the Visual Arts

Edited by Philip A. Alperson

Description

Most instructors who teach introductory courses in aesthetics or the philosophy of arts use the visual arts as their implicit reference for "art" in general, yet until now there has been no aesthetics anthology specifically orientated to the visual arts. This text stresses conceptual and theoretical issues, first examining the very notion of "the visual arts" and then investigating philosophical questions raised by various forms, from painting, the paradigmatic form, to sculpture, photography, film, dance, kitsch, and other forms on the borders of the visual arts. The selections represent both classical and contemporary views and include sections by artists, art historians, and critics as well as philosophers. A singularly important text for courses in the philosophy of arts or aesthetics, this anthology is designed to enrich the philosophical and critical examination of our beliefs about the visual arts.

The Philosophy of the Visual Arts

Edited by Philip A. Alperson

I. The Idea of the Visual Arts
1. The Aesthetic Attitude, Jerome Stolnitz
2. On the Nature of the Visual Arts, Thomas Munro
3. The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude, George Dickie
4. Intuition, Technique and the Classification of the Arts, Benedetto Croce
5. On the Limits of Painting and Poetry, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
II. Painting and the Pictorial Arts: Form and the Representation of the Visible World
6. A Copy Theory of Representation, Plato
7. Truth and the Stereotype: An Illusion Theory of Representation, E.H. Gombrich
8. Reality Remade: A Denotation Theory of Representation, Nelson Goodman
9. Looking at Pictures and Looking at Things, Kendall L. Walton
10. Caricature, Stephanie Ross
11. The Aesthetic Hypothesis: Significant Form and Aesthetic: Emotion, Clive Bell
III. Painting and the Pictorial Arts: Wider Contexts
12. Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky
13. Symbolism, Monroe C. Beardsley
A. Psychology
14. Art and Thought, Rudolf Arnheim
15. Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, Sigmund Freud
16. The Forms of Things Unknown, Herbert Read
17. Psychology and Art Today: A Summary and Critique, Douglas N. Morgan
B. Religion
18. The Religious Significance of Painting, Etienne Gilson
19. The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, Leo Steinberg
C. Politics and Society
20. The Naked and the Nude, Kenneth Clark
21. Ways of Seeing Women, John Berger
22. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? Linda Nochlin
IV. Arts of the Camera
23. The Ontology of the Photographic Image, Andre Bazin
24. In Plato's Cave, Susan Sontag
25. Photography, Vision, and Representation, Joel Snyder and Neil Walsh Allen
26. A Realist Theory of Film, Siegfried Kracauer
27. Film as Art, Rudolf Arnheim
28. Basic Film Aesthetics, Francis Sparshott
V. Sculpture, Architecture, and Hand-Crafted Objects
29. The Discovery of Space, Herbert Read
30. The Worship of Art: Notes on the New God, Tom Wolfe
31. Form and Function, Horatio Greenough
32. How Buildings Mean, Nelson Goodman
33. A Case for Figurative Architecture, Michael Graves
34. Art and Craft, R.G. Collingwood
35. The Aesthetic of the Antique, Leon Rosenstein
36. Use and Contemplation, Octavio Paz
VI. Modern Developments
37. Aesthetics and the Contemporary Arts, Arnold Berleant
38. The Artworld, Arthur Danto
39. What is Art?: An Institutional Analysis, George Dickie
40. The Ontological Peculiarity of Works of Art, Joseph Margolis
41. Piece: Contra Aesthetics, Timothy Binkley
VII. Art History and Museums
42. The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline, Erwin Panofsky
43. Style and Significance in Art History and Art Criticism, Jenefer M. Robinson
44. Categories of Art, Kendall L. Walton
45. Art and Authenticity, Nelson Goodman
The New Art History: A Symposium
46. What is "New" About the "New Art History"? Thomas Dacosta Kaufmann
47. Cultural Institutions and the Topography of Art History, Michael Marrinan
48. Old, New and Not So New Art History, Arthur Danto
49. Showing and Saving, Looking and Learning: An Outsider's View of Art Museums, Francis Sparshott
50. Exhibits and Artworks, Hilde Hein
VIII. On the Borders of the Visual Arts
51. Why Philosophy Neglects the Dance, Francis Sparshott
52. Sweet Kitsch, Kathleen Higgins
53. Circus, Clowns and Culture, Paul Bouissac
54. Appreciation and the Natural Envoirnment, Allen Carlson
55. Nature and Art: Some Dialectical Relationships, Donald Crawford
56. Rain, Barbara Sandrisser
57. The Art of Personal Beauty, Curt Ducasse
58. Life as the Imitation of Art, Oscar Wilde