Jason Gaiger Bücher

Art in Theory 1815-1900 provides the most wide-ranging and comprehensive collection of documents ever assembled on nineteenth-century theories of art.

What can philosophy reveal about painting and how might it deepen our understanding of this enduring art form? Philosophy of Painting investigates the complex relationship between the painted surface and the depicted subject, opening up current debates to address questions concerning the historicality of art. Embracing contemporary painting, it examines topics such as the post-medium condition and the digital divide, and the work of artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Amy Sillman and Katharina Grosse.Illustrated with 24 colour plates and highly readable throughout, Philosophy of Painting provides a philosophically rigorous defence of the relevance of painting in the 21st century, making an original contribution to the major ideas informing painting as an art. Here is a clear and coherent account of the contemporary significance of painting and the pressures and possibilities that distinguish it from other art forms.

This generously illustrated volume, the first in the Art of the Twentieth Century series, introduces and explores a range of contemporary issues and debates about art and its place in the wider culture today.The opening chapter discusses key concepts such as modernity, modernism, autonomy, spectatorship, and globalization. Four case studies follow, each devoted to a specific work of art across the span of the Marcel Duchamp’s Bottlerack, Barnett Newman’s Eve, Ana Mendieta’s Silueta series, and Yarla by the Australian Aboriginal Yuendumu community. These works have been selected not only for their intrinsic interest but also for the way in which they open up wider questions of meaning and interpretation that are central to understanding twentieth-century art.Published in association with The Open University