A Companion to Art Theory (Blackwell Companions in Cultural Studies)

The Companion provides an accessible critical survey of Western visual art theory from sources in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance thought through to contemporary writings. Part. 1. Tradition and the academy. Introduction: Alberti and the formation of modern art theory -- Carolyn Wilde Classical concept of minesis -- Göran Sörbom ; Medieval art theory -- Hugh Bredin ; Neoplatonist aesthetics -- Suzanne Stern-Gillet ; Renaissance art theories -- Francois Quiviger ; Touch, tactility, and the reception of sculpture in early modern Italy -- Geraldine A. Johnson ; Spiritual exercises of Leonardo da Vinci -- Robert Williams ; Academic theory,1550-1800 -- Paul Duro ; Rhetorical categories in the academy -- Caroline van Eck ; Picturesque and its development -- Andrew Ballantyne -- pt. 2. Around modernism. Aesthetics of Kant and Hegel -- Jason Gaiger ; E.H. Gombrich and the tradition of Hegel -- David Summers ; German romanticism and French aesthetic theory -- Wendy S. Mercer ; Expression : natural, personal, pictorial -- Richard Shiff ; Reading artists' words -- Richard Hobbs ; Nietzsche and the artist -- Michael White ; Wittgenstein, description, and Adrian Stokes (on Cézanne) -- Paul Smith ; Modernism and the idea of the avant-garde -- Paul Wood ; On the intention of modern(ist) art -- Fred Orton ; Anti-art and the concept of art -- Paul N. Humble ; Marcel Duchamp's readymades and anti-aesthetic reflex -- David Hopkins -- pt. 3. Critical theory and postmodernism. Marxism and critical art history -- David Craven ; Walter Benjamin and art theory -- Howard Caygill ; Bakhtin and the visual arts -- Deborah J. Haynes ; Peirce's visuality and the semiotics of art -- Michael Leja ; Conceptual art -- Charles Harrison ; Barthes on art -- Margaret Iversen ; Foucault and art -- Roy Boyne ; Derrida and the Parergon -- Robin Marriner ; What consciousness forgets : Lyotard's concept of the sublime -- Renée van de Vall ; Deleuze on Francis Bacon -- Ian Heywood ; Feminisms and art theory -- Marsha Meskimmon ; Psycho-phallus (qu'est-ce que c'est?) -- Mignon Nixon -- pt. 4. Interpretation and the institution of art. Rules of representation -- John Willats ; Gombrich and psychology -- Richard Woodfield ; Hermeneutics and art theory -- Nicholas Davey ; Reciprocity and reception theory -- Michael Ann Holly ; Paradox of creative interpretation in art -- Carl Hausman ; Interdisciplinarity and visual culture -- Charlotte Klonk ; Against curatorial imperialism : Merleau-Ponty and the historicity of art -- Paul Crowther ; Institutional theory of art : theory and antitheory -- Garry L. Hagberg. "This survey of art theory in the context of Western visual art consists of 41 original essays written by experts in the field. Following an extensive introduction on the formation of modern art theory, the Companion is organized chronologically so that readers can trace developments of visual art theory, from classical and Medieval sources and modern conceptions of art as they have been theorized since the Renaissance, through to some current theoretical preoccupations." "In addition to outlining and describing various theoretical positions, the book's chapters articulate some assumptions that underpin them and raise more general questions about the nature of theorizing about art. In this way, the Companion provides both an introduction to main themes of Western art theory and a source for critical enquiry into the purposes, possibilities and limitations of theory in the context of artistic practice." "The work can also be used alongside the three Art in Theory anthologies published by Blackwell, as a further art theory resource."--Résumé de l'éditeur A survey of art theory in the context of Western visual art. It is organized chronologically so that readers can trace developments of visual art theory, from Classical and Medieval sources and modern conceptions of art, through to some contemporary theoretical preoccupations This survey of art theory in the context of Western visual art is organized chronologically so that readers can trace developments of visual art theory through to some contemporary theoretical preoccupations If we ask what a theory of art is, then both terms of our question seem problematic.