What Art Is

What Art Is PDF Author: Arthur C. Danto
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030017487X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
One of America's most celebrated art critics offers a lively meditation on the nature of art.

What Art Is

What Art Is PDF Author: Arthur C. Danto
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030017487X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
One of America's most celebrated art critics offers a lively meditation on the nature of art.

What Art Is

What Art Is PDF Author: Arthur C. Danto
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300195117
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
DIV What is it to be a work of art? Renowned author and critic Arthur C. Danto addresses this fundamental, complex question. Part philosophical monograph and part memoiristic meditation, What Art Is challenges the popular interpretation that art is an indefinable concept, instead bringing to light the properties that constitute universal meaning. Danto argues that despite varied approaches, a work of art is always defined by two essential criteria: meaning and embodiment, as well as one additional criterion contributed by the viewer: interpretation. Danto crafts his argument in an accessible manner that engages with both philosophy and art across genres and eras, beginning with Plato’s definition of art in The Republic, and continuing through the progress of art as a series of discoveries, including such innovations as perspective, chiaroscuro, and physiognomy. Danto concludes with a fascinating discussion of Andy Warhol’s famous shipping cartons, which are visually indistinguishable from the everyday objects they represent. Throughout, Danto considers the contributions of philosophers including Descartes, Kant, and Hegel, and artists from Michelangelo and Poussin to Duchamp and Warhol, in this far-reaching examination of the interconnectivity and universality of aesthetic production. /div

What Is Art and Essays on Art

What Is Art and Essays on Art PDF Author: Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1528769643
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Originally published in 1930, this book contains the widely respected essay 'What Is Art', by the well-known Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, and is highly recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of any fan of his works. Many of these earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

What Is Art For?

What Is Art For? PDF Author: Ellen Dissanayake
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295998385
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Every human society displays some form of behavior that can be called “art,” and in most societies other than our own the arts play an integral part in social life. Those who wish to understand art in its broadest sense, as a universal human endowment, need to go beyond modern Western elitist notions that disregard other cultures and ignore the human species’ four-million-year evolutionary history. This book offers a new and unprecedentedly comprehensive theory of the evolutionary significance of art. Art, meaning not only visual art, but music, poetic language, dance, and performance, is for the first time regarded from a biobehavioral or ethical viewpoint. It is shown to be a biological necessity in human existence and fundamental characteristic of the human species. In this provocative study, Ellen Dissanayake examines art along with play and ritual as human behaviors that “make special,” and proposes that making special is an inherited tendency as intrinsic to the human species as speech and toolmaking. She claims that the arts evolved as means of making socially important activities memorable and pleasurable, and thus have been essential to human survival. Avoiding simplism and reductionism, this original synthetic approach permits a fresh look at old questions about the origins, nature, purpose, and value of art. It crosses disciplinary boundaries and integrates a number of divers fields: human ethology; evolutionary biology; the psychology and philosophy of art; physical and cultural anthropology; “primitive” and prehistoric art; Western cultural history; and children’s art. The final chapter, “From Tradition to Aestheticism,” explores some of the ways in which modern Western society has diverged from other societies--particularly the type of society in which human beings evolved--and considers the effects of the aberrance on our art and our attitudes toward art. This book is addressed to readers who have a concerned interest in the arts or in human nature and the state of modern society.

What Art Is

What Art Is PDF Author: Michelle Kamhi
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812699599
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
What is art? The arts establishment has a simple answer: anything is art if a reputed artist or expert says it is. Though many people are skeptical about the alleged new art forms that have proliferated since the early twentieth century, today's critics claim that all such work, however incomprehensible, is art. A groundbreaking alternative to this view is provided by philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand (1901–1982). Best known as the author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand also created an original and illuminating theory of art, which confirms the widespread view that much of today's purported art is not really art at all. In What Art Is, Torres and Kamhi present a lucid introduction to Rand's esthetic theory, contrasting her ideas with those of other thinkers. They conclude that, in its basic principles, her account is compelling, and is corroborated by evidence from anthropology, neurology, cognitive science, and psychology. The authors apply Rand's theory to a debunking of the work of prominent modernists and postmodernists—from Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and Samuel Beckett to John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and other highly regarded postmodernist figures. Finally, they explore the implications of Rand's ideas for the issues of government and corporate support of the arts, art law, and art education. "This is one of the most interesting, provocative, and well-written books on aesthetics that I know. While fully accessible to the general reader, What Art Is should be of great interest to specialists as well. Ayn Rand's largely unknown writings on art—especially as interpreted, released from dogma, and smoothed out by Torres and Kamhi—are remarkably refined. Moreover, her ideas are positively therapeutic after a century of artistic floundering and aesthetic quibbling. Anyone interested in aesthetics, in the purpose of art, or in the troubling issues posed by modernism and post modernism should read this book." —Randall R. Dipert Author of Artifacts, Art Works, and Agency "Torres and Kamhi effectively situate Rand's long-neglected esthetic theory in the wider history of ideas. They not only illuminate her significant contribution to an understanding of the nature of art; they also apply her ideas to a trenchant critique of the twentieth century's 'advanced art.' Their exposure of the invalidity of abstract art is itself worth the price of admission." —Chris Matthew Sciabarra Author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical "Rand's aesthetic theory merits careful study and thoughtful criticism, which Torres and Kamhi provide. Their scholarship is sound, their presentation is clear, and their judgment is refreshingly free from the biases that Rand's supporters and detractors alike tend to bring to considerations of her work." —Stephen Cox University of California, San Diego

What Art Is Like, In Constant Reference to the Alice Books

What Art Is Like, In Constant Reference to the Alice Books PDF Author: Miguel Tamen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674067959
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
This comic, serious inquiry into the nature of art takes its technical vocabulary from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It is ridiculous to think of poems, paintings, or films as distinct from other things in the world, including people. Talking about art should be contiguous with talking about other relevant matters.

An ABC of what Art Can be

An ABC of what Art Can be PDF Author: Meher McArthur
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 089236999X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Rhyming text introduces 26 artistic concepts, one for each letter of the alphabet.

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning PDF Author: Pamela Sachant
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a deep insight and comprehension of the world of Art. Contents: What is Art? The Structure of Art Significance of Materials Used in Art Describing Art - Formal Analysis, Types, and Styles of Art Meaning in Art - Socio-Cultural Contexts, Symbolism, and Iconography Connecting Art to Our Lives Form in Architecture Art and Identity Art and Power Art and Ritual Life - Symbolism of Space and Ritual Objects, Mortality, and Immortality Art and Ethics

What is Art All About?

What is Art All About? PDF Author: Desiderius Orban
Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description


What is Art?

What is Art? PDF Author: Joseph Beuys
Publisher: CLAIRVIEW BOOKS
ISBN: 1905570562
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Joseph Beuys’s work continues to influence and inspire practitioners and thinkers all over the world, in areas from organizational learning, direct democracy and new money forms to new art pedagogies and ecological art practices. Here, in dialogue with Volker Harlan - a close colleague, whose own work also revolves around understandings of substance and sacrament that are central to Beuys - the deeper motivations and insights underlying ‘social sculpture’, Beuys’s expanded conception of art, are illuminated. His profound reflections, complemented with insightful essays by Volker Harlan, give a sense of the interconnectedness between all life forms, and the foundations of a path towards an ecologically sustainable future. This volume features over 40 b/w illustrations.