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Print Price: $13.50

Format:
Paperback
184 pp.
numerous halftones, 111 mm x 174 mm

ISBN-13:
9780192804631

Publication date:
February 2003

Imprint: OUP UK

Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction

Cynthia Freeland

Series : Very Short Introductions

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this Very Short Introduction Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples.

She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, clarifying contemporary and historical accounts of the nature, function, and interpretation of the arts. Freeland also propels us into the future by surveying cutting-edge web sites, alongside the latest research on the brain's role in perceiving art.

This clear, provocative book engages with the big debates surrounding our responses to art and is an invaluable introduction to anyone interested in thinking about art.

Readership : The general public; art collectors and audiences; working artists and art teachers; students (in philosophy, the arts, art theory and aesthetics, communication, film studies, media studies, architecture, cultural studies, anthropology, women's and gender studies, literary theory, music theory and musicology)

Reviews

`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

List of Illustrations
1. Blood and Beauty
2. Paradigms and Purposes
3. Cultural Crossings
4. Money, Markets, Museums
5. Gender, Genius, and Guerrilla Girls
6. Cognition, Creation, Comprehension
7. Digitizing and Disseminating
Conclusion
References
Further Reading
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

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).

There are no related titles available at this time.

Special Features

'profoundly refreshing and satisfying ... Freeland's energetic and engaging voice breezily guides the reader, while employing an astonishing array of examples to illuminate and activate her explications.' (Don Bacigalupi, Director, San Diego Museum of Art)
Up-to-date and future-oriented: devotes a chapter to art on the web, video art, art museum CD-ROMs and various theorists of the new media and of postmodern art
Illustrated with a wide range of salient images
Discusses topical artists like Andres Serrano and Damien Hirst as well as more historical examples like Goya and Velazquez
The style is clear, lively, and humorous