Meanings of Abstract Art: Between Nature and Theory (Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies)

Paul Crowther, Isabel W�nsche

ISBN 10: 1138233862 / ISBN 13: 9781138233867

Published by Routledge 2016-10-11, 2016

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 6666-IUK-9781138233867

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Meanings of Abstract Art: Between Nature and Theory (Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies)
• Publisher: Routledge 2016-10-11
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138233862
• ISBN 13: 9781138233867
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Traditional art is based on conventions of resemblance between the work and that which it is a representation "of". Abstract art, in contrast, either adopts alternative modes of visual representation or reconfigures mimetic convention. This book explores the relation of abstract art to nature (taking nature in the broadest sense―the world of recognisable objects, creatures, organisms, processes, and states of affairs).

Abstract art takes many different forms, but there are shared key structural features centered on two basic relations to nature. The first abstracts from nature, to give selected aspects of it a new and extremely unfamiliar appearance. The second affirms a natural creativity that issues in new, autonomous forms that are not constrained by mimetic conventions. (Such creativity is often attributed to the power of the unconscious.)

The book covers three categories: classical modernism (Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Arp, early American abstraction); post-war abstraction (Pollock, Still, Newman, Smithson, Noguchi, Arte Povera, Michaux, postmodern developments); and the broader historical and philosophical scope.

About the Author

Paul Crowther is Chair of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway

Isabel Wünsche is Professor of Art and Art History at Jacobs University, Bremen