Refractions – serie

A holistic and systematic analysis of Ernst Gombrich as theoristOffers the first holistic and systematic analysis of Gombrich's theoretical ideas and interrogation of their sourcesExamines both the history of art and architecture and its current practiceArranges all of Gombrich's sideas howing the aptitude and validity of its theoretical loadEnables a new understanding of the nature of Art History and its presuppositionsCaptures and retains Gombrich's appeal and humour, and his straightforward style without losing depthThis is the first English translation of Gombrich: una teor a del arte, by Joaqu n Lorda, originally published in 1991.Lorda was considered to be one of Gombrich's best students and this book presents an extensive, expansive and holistic analysis of Gombrich's thought. It is structured around a set of key ideas and themes: Science, Joke, Game and Rhetoric. Lorda provides in-depth analysis of Gombrich's engagement with figures such as Huizinga, Freud, Hegel, and Popper.While there has been extensive secondary literature on Gombrich, this is the first book to provide a systematic analysis of his ideas and theoretical frameworks, taking into account the entirety of his writings. This major work of scholarship sheds new light on Gombrich as a thinker and turns Gombrich's ideas into a workable theory of art that can be used as an instrument to examine both the history of art and architecture and its current practice.

Arguing for the necessity of taking art's contribution to contemporary realism seriously, this edited collection intervenes on contemporary debates about realism by demonstrating that the arts do not simply illustrate philosophical theories. The significance of art's realism in times characterised by the normalisation of fake, manipulated and distorted representations of reality can only be fully understood by attending to the ways that the arts mediate, visualise and even shape reality. Each chapter features a different approach to realism and its aesthetic dimensions not only in the visual arts, but also in sound art, film, scientific imaging and literature.

Aline Guillermet uncovers Gerhard Richter's appropriation of science and technology from 1960 to the present and shows how this has shaped the artist's well-documented engagement with the canon of Western painting. Through a study of Richter's portraits, history paintings, landscapes and ornamental abstractions, Guillermet reveals the artist's role in affirming the technological condition of painting in the second half of the twentieth century: a historical situation in which the medium and its conventions have become shaped, and to some extent transformed, by technological innovations.

Michael Ann Holly is fascinated by a silent route rarely chosen in the historical and critical history of art: the poetic possibility of phenomenology.Selecting early modern paintings by Bellini, Patinir, Durer, Rembrandt, Aertsen, Breughel, and Sassetta, she imagines what a range of classical phenomenologists in the twentieth century might quietly contribute to the understanding of these canonical works of art. This special brand of philosophy dares to think about what is whispered, hidden, concealed or veiled by a prosaic exchange with objects and images. The shift today from epistemology to ontology has resulted in a renewed attention to the animacy of objects.Through this (re)reading, and often offering a very personal account, she asks how might we construe art history differently by intimating the magic of painting, the silence and wonder beneath words?Michael Ann Holly is Starr Director Emerita of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute.

Explores the rich spectrum of problems, concepts and theories raised by the colour grey across philosophy, art and art historyExplores the rich spectrum of possibilities, ideas and practices implicated by the colour and concept of grey across philosophy, art practice, theory, history and historiographyAddresses the ongoing relevance of Hegel's articulation of philosophy as 'grey on grey'Provides an interdisciplinary study of philosophical and theoretical issues raised by grey, including the relationships between abstraction and immediacy, determinancy and indeterminancy, colour and colourlessness, indifference and difference, and concepts of neutrality, repetition, tautology, and equivalenceTaking off from Hegel's invocation of philosophy as a painting of 'grey on grey', this collection of essays explores the rich scope of possibilities implicated by the colour and concept of grey. Crossing art history, visual studies, philosophy, anthropology and literary studies, contributions attest to the repetitious insistence of grey on grey in rethinking the ontology of artworks and images; concepts of time, technique and medium; and how its immanent logic of self-differing summons forth deadlocks and blind spots, both past and present.

The New Vienna School was and is the image-based alternative to iconologyExplains and contextualizes the Gestalt theoretical basis of the New Vienna SchoolHighlights the value of a Gestalt critical realism approach over positivismModels a visuality-based method in distinct case studies showing the breadth and depth of the New Vienna SchoolDemystifies of the commitments of the Vienna School to structure" and "holism"Explains the wider "Strukturforschung" school beyond Sedlmayr and P cht which shows it to be a significant cultural phenomenon rather than a brief historical experimentThis book is an account of the theory and practice of practitioners of the so-called "second" or "younger" Viennese school associated with Hans Sedlmayr and Otto P cht and their short-lived journal, Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen. It demonstrates the strong dependence of these writers on the work of Gestalt psychology which was emerging at the time. Gestalt theory emerges as the master key to interpreting Sedlmayr and P cht's ideas about art and history and how it affected their practices.This fresh interpretive apparatus casts light on the power and originality of Sedlmayr's and P cht's theoretical and empirical writings, revealing a practice-based approach to history that is more attuned to the visuality of art.Verstegen demonstrates the existence of a genealogy of Vienna formalism coursing throughout most of the twentieth century, encompassing Johannes Wilde and his students at the Courtauld as well as Otto Demus in Byzantine studies. By bringing Gestalt theory to the surface, he dispels misunderstandings about the Vienna School theory and attains a deeper understanding of the promise that a Gestalt analytic holism a non-intuitionist account of the relational logic of sense is offered. "

Demonstrates the central role of Bergson for modernist art and intellectual history in the UKBrings to light new evidence of British artists' direct engagement with Bergson, opening new avenues of research and interpretation for the artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, John Duncan Fergusson, and artist-writers Roger Fry and Wyndham LewisBased on archival material in Paris and US not previously accessed? (Biblioteque Jacques Doucet, Isabella Gardner Museum, Boston and Wyndham Lewis' marginalia in his editions of Bergson's texts at The University of Texas at Austin), in addition to primary sources in UK (Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, London, and Strathclyde), and US (Universities of Cornell and Texas at Austin)Changes art history's standard readings of these artists as the evidence of their knowledge of and engagement with Bergson is irrefutableExplores concepts of duration, intuition, creativity; the image and perception as they were formulated by Bergson and understood by his contemporariesDemonstrates Bergson's relevance to key problematics for Art History: temporality, intuition, subjectivity, representation, the image.Charlotte de Mille shows that the reception of the philosophy of Henri Bergson by British artists and critics was far more wide spread and of far greater importance in the UK than has been previously thought.Based on archival material in Paris and the US, not all previously accessed, along with primary UK sources, she opens new avenues of research and interpretation on the work of artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, John Duncan Fergusson and artist-writers Roger Fry and Wyndham Lewis.De Mille demonstrates the profound impact of Bergson's work in UK culture immediately prior to World War One. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates philosophy, art criticism and art history. An Epilogue considers the proximity of Bergson's thought on temporality, perception, intuition and subjectivity to art history, from Alois Riegl and Aby Warburg, to practitioners today.

Mieke Bal takes us on a journey through the range of her work, using the concept of image-thinking as a point of connection between cultural analysis and artistic practice. Sharing a lifetime of experience of writing about art, making films and installations, as well as curating exhibitions, she shows us how these may be brought into dialogue with insights from theory.Bal teaches us how to think with images, but also how to write and think as artists and writers about our own creative work. This is Mieke Bal at her most personal and her best.

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.