Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction - Softcover

Freeland, Cynthia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192804634 ISBN 13: 9780192804631

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007

Synopsis

About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, and Literary Theory to History. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given topic. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how it has developed and influenced society. Whatever the area of study, whatever the topic that fascinates the reader, the series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

About this title

About the Author

Cynthia A. Freeland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston. She has published on topics in the philosophy of art and film, ancient Greek philosophy, and feminist theory. She is also author of The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror (1999) and co-editor of Philosophy and Film (1995).

Review

`Review from previous edition So many of the questions that define us as a culture have been raised through and by the art of recent decades, that without coming to terms with our art, we can scarcely understand ourselves. Cynthia Freeland has written a very smart book, in which high
philosophical intelligence is applied to difficult questions raised by real works of art. It immediately situates the reader where thought and action meet, and since the issues are inescapable, it should be required reading for everyone.

I know of no work that moves so swiftly and with so sure a footing through the battle zones of art and society today.'
Arthur C. Danto, Columbia University, author of After the End of Art

`This pocket potboiler provides some answers, a lot of questions and plenty of entertainment along the way'
TNT Magazine

`a pacy and readable introduction to art history'
Independent on Sunday

`admirable for its scope, compactness and exceptional clarity. Reader-friendly and thought-provoking'
The Independent

`a book of simplicity and clarity that may well come to rival John Berger's Ways of Seeing as a reader's digest of the rubric of theories that make up contemporary art criticism . . . This is a valuable book for anyone perplexed by the arcane theorising of contemporary art'
Sue Hubbard, The Independent

`a useful crib'
Guardian

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0192804634
• ISBN 13: 9780192804631
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192