Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carroll (Aesthetics and Contemporary Art)

"Boldly developing the central traditions of American modernist abstraction, Lawrence Carroll's paintings engage with a fundamental issue of aesthetic theory, the nature of the medium of painting, in highly original, frequently extraordinarily successful ways. Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carroll explains how he understands the medium of painting; shows what his art says about the identity of painting as an art; discusses the place of his paintings in the development of abstraction; and, finally, offers an interpretation of his art. The first monograph devoted to him, this philosophical commentary employs the resources of analytic aesthetics. Art historians trace the development of art, explaining how what came earlier yields to what comes later. Taking for granted that the artifacts they describe are artworks, art historians place them within the history of art. Philosophical art writers define art, explain why it has a history and identify its meaning. Pursuing that goal, Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carroll roams freely across art history, focused at some points on the story of old master painting and sometimes on the history of modernism, but looking also to contemporary art, in order to provide the fullest possible philosophical perspective on Carroll's work."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art and Lawrence Carroll' explores the philosophical implications of the practice of art making, illustrating the intricate relationship between aesthetic theory and contemporary art through the work of the abstract painter, Lawrence Carroll. Beginning with a historical discussion of the critics and philosophers Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried, Arthur Danto and Joachim Pissarro, David Carrier compares and contrasts their philosophical writings on painting. He considers why questions about aesthetics and the essence of a painting generated philosophical disagreements