What Artistry Can Do: Essays on Art and Beauty (Refractions)

This collection of 12 essays by the Belgian philosopher and theorist Bart Verschaffel addresses the meaning and relevance of art today. Written over the course of his career, they cover a rich and inventive range of topics: from mockery and laughter to the artwork as a ‘gift’, and from caricature to splendour. This is the first synoptic collection of Verschaffel’s work, with many of the essays translated into English for the first time. Cover Half-title page Refractions series Title page Copyright Information Contents Figures Series Editor’s Preface Preface by John MacArthur Introduction Part I: Art as a Form of Understanding 1. First Ideas on Art, Being Moved and Criticism 2. Critical?Art 3. What Art Can Do (‘Malpertuis’ by Jean Ray) 4. On the Pleasure of Finding What Is Hidden (‘With Hidden Noise’ by Marcel Duchamp) 5. Memoria: Memory Work and the ‘Conversation of Mankind’ Part II: Aspects of Artistry 6. On Laughter, Opinions and Artistic Freedom 7. Notes on the Work of Art as a Gift 8. ‘Being an Artist Is an Art in Itself’: On the ‘First Work’ and the Notionof ‘Oeuvre’ 9. Double-Speak Part III: Elementary Aesthetics 10. On Splendour and Modern Beauty 11. Fatal Truths: Notes on the Beauty Experience 12. On the Aesthetic Gaze, Beautyand the Two Sources of Ugliness First Publication Notes Index This collection of essays by the Belgian philosopher and theorist Bart Verschaffel, address issues concerning the meaning and relevance of art today. Written over the course of his career, they cover a rich and inventive range of topics, from laughter to the artwork as gift, to splendor and modern beauty. This is the first synoptic collection of Verschaffel's work with many of the essays translated into English for the first time This collection of essays by the Belgian philosopher and theorist Bart Verschaffel addresses the meaning and relevance of art today. Written over the course of his career, they cover a rich and inventive range of topics: from laughter and the artwork as gift, to splendour and modern beauty. This is the first synoptic collection of Verschaffel's work, with many of the essays translated into English for the first time. These 12 essays by Belgian philosopher and theorist Bart Verschaffel - many translated into English for the first time - explore the meaning and relevance of art today. They cover a rich and inventive range of topics, from mockery and laughter to the artwork as a 'gift', and from caricature to splendour.