The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics


Book Description

'The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics' has assembled 48 brand-new essays, making this a comprehensive guide available to the theory, application, history, and future of the field.




Art as Expression


Book Description

This book is for any painter who wants to grow as an artist and learn how to creatre more expressive art. Based on insights that have helped many of his students express the natural artists within themselves, Art as Expressionn embodies Henry Peacock's creative experience during four decades of painting and teaching. Profusely illustrated with diagrams analyzing the work of twentieth century masters, this book is helpful for art teachers and for anyone who seeks a further understanding in art.




Art and Expression


Book Description

Perception of expression distinguishes our cognitive activity in a pervasive, significant and peculiar way, and manifests itself paradigmatically in the vast world of artistic production. Art and Expression examines the cognitive processes involved in artistic production, aesthetic reception, understanding and enjoyment. Using a phenomenological theoretical and methodological framework, developed by Rudolf Arnheim and other important scholars interested in expressive media, Alberto Argenton considers a wide range of artistic works, which span the whole arc of the history of western graphic and pictorial art. Argenton analyses the representational strategies of a dynamic and expressive character that can be reduced to basic aspects of perception, like obliqueness, amodal completion, and the bilateral function of contour, giving new directions relative to the functioning of cognitive activity. Art and Expression is a monument to the fruitful collaboration of art history and psychology, and Argenton has taken great care to construct a meaningful psychological approach to the arts based also on a knowledge of pictorial genres that allows him to systematically situate the works under scrutiny. Art and Expression is an essential resource for postgraduate researchers and scholars interested in visual perception, art, and gestalt psychology.




Art's Emotions


Book Description

Despite the very obvious differences between looking at Manet’s Woman with a Parrot and listening to Elgar’s Cello Concerto, both experiences provoke similar questions in the thoughtful aesthete: why does the painting seem to express reverie and the music, nostalgia? How do we experience the reverie and nostalgia in such works of art? Why do we find these experiences rewarding in similar ways? As our awareness of emotion in art, and our engagement with art’s emotions, can make such a special contribution to our life, it is timely for a philosopher to seek to account for the nature and significance of the experience of art’s emotions. Damien Freeman develops a new theory of emotion that is suitable for resolving key questions in aesthetics. He then reviews and evaluates three existing approaches to artistic expression, and proposes a new approach to the emotional experience of art that draws on the strengths of the existing approaches. Finally, he seeks to establish the ethical significance of this emotional experience of art for human flourishing. Freeman challenges the reader not only to consider how art engages with emotion, but how we should connect up our answers to questions concerning the nature and value of the experiences offered by works of art.




Mastering the Art of Self-Expression


Book Description

Mastering the Art of Self-Expression is an interactive full-color workbook based on Laura Thoma's successful in-person and online workshop, Creative Journaling 101. This instructive workbook takes you on a journey to reconnect with your creative spirit through self-exploration and play. You practice non-judgment and mindfulness while reclaiming your refrigerator art. The exercises show you your strength and courage while freeing your sense of humor. Also included are mini-motivators, reflection pages, and space to doodle, ponder, and brainstorm. Laura Thoma is Co-Founder of Road to Success℠ a personal development online school where she designs and facilitates programs with a whole brain approach. Laura is a speaker, certified coach, and artist with an extensive background in both the performing and visual arts. Creative Journaling arose from her journey of personal growth and recovery from a career ending injury. She found herself in the pages of her journal and wants to share this powerful method with you.




Richard Wollheim on the Art of Painting


Book Description

A collection of essays on Wollheim's philosophy of art; includes a response from Wollheim himself.




Art as Experience


Book Description







The Art of Photography, 2nd Edition


Book Description

This is an updated and newly revised edition of the classic book The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression. Originally published in 1994 and first revised in 2010, The Art of Photography has sold well over 100,000 copies and has firmly established itself as the most readable, understandable, and complete textbook on photography. Featuring nearly 200 beautiful photographs in both black-and-white and color, as well as numerous charts, graphs, and tables, this book presents the world of photography to beginner, intermediate, and advanced photographers who seek to make a personal statement through the medium of photography. Without talking down to anyone or talking over anyone's head, renowned photographer, teacher, and author Bruce Barnbaum presents how-to techniques for both traditional and digital approaches. In this newest edition of the book, Barnbaum has included many new images and has completely revised the text, with particular focus on two crucial chapters covering digital photography: he revised a chapter covering the digital zone system, and includes a brand-new chapter on image adjustments using digital tools. There is also a new chapter discussing the concepts of “art versus technique” and “traditional versus digital” approaches to photography. Throughout the book, Barnbaum goes well beyond the technical, as he delves deeply into the philosophical, expressive, and creative aspects of photography so often avoided in other books. Barnbaum is recognized as one of the world's finest landscape and architectural photographers, and for decades has been considered one of the best instructors in the field of photography. This latest incarnation of his textbook—which has evolved, grown, and been refined over the past 45 years—will prove to be an ongoing, invaluable photographic reference for years to come. It is truly the resource of choice for the thinking photographer. Topics include: • Elements of Composition • Visualization • Light and Color • Filters • Black-and-White • The Digital Zone System • The Zone System for Film • Printing and Presentation • Exploding Photographic Myths • Artistic Integrity • Realism, Abstraction, and Art • Creativity and Intuition • A Personal Philosophy • And much, much more…




Expression in the Performing Arts


Book Description

The performing arts represent a significant part of the artistic production in our culture. Correspondingly the fields of drama, film, music, opera, dance and performance studies are expanding. However, these arts remain an underexplored territory for aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Expression in the Performing Arts tries to contribute to this area. The volume collects essays written by international scholars who address a variety of themes concerning the core philosophical topic of expression in the theory of the performing arts. Specific questions about the ontology of art, the nature of the performances, the role of the performer, and the relations between spectators and works emerge from the study of the performing arts. Besides, these arts challenge the unchanging physicality of other kinds of works of art, usually the direct result of creative individual artist, and barely affected by the particular circumstances of their exhibition. Expression is one of the issues that adopt a special character in the performing arts. Do singers, dancers or actors express the feelings a work is expressive of? How does the performer contribute to the expressive content of the work? How does the spectator emotionally respond to the physical proximity of the performers? Is aesthetic distance avoided in the understanding of the performing arts? How are the expressive properties of work, performance and characters related? And how are the subjectivities they embody revealed? The contributions presented here are not all in agreement on the right answers to theses questions, but they offer a critical and exciting discussion of them. In addition to original proposals on the theoretical aspect of expression in the performing arts, the collection includes analyses of individual artists, historical productions and concrete works of art, as well as reflections on performative practice.