What is Abstraction? (What Isà?) - Softcover

Benjamin, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854904345 ISBN 13: 9781854904348

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1996

Synopsis

This text addresses the question of abstraction, one of the most significant and influential schools of criticism, by looking at three interconnected projects. The first argues that developments within abstraction have rendered the traditional theoretical and philosophical understandings of abstraction inadequate. The second develops the theoretical and philosophical issues in relation to contemporary abstract work, and the third demonstrates in what way these theoretical innovations allow for the reinterpretation of the tradition of abstraction.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Benjamin is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick and Director of the Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick. He has recently completed a term as visiting professor of architecture at Columbia University, New York and his publications include Art, Mimesis and the Avant-Garde, The Plural Event and Object - Painting. He is Editor of the Journal of Philosophy and the Visual Arts.

From the Back Cover

'What is Abstraction?' Taking up Clement Greenberg's challenge 'We can only dispose of abstract art by assimilating it, by fighting our way through it' Andrew Benjamin addresses the question of abstraction, one of the most significant and influential developments in twentieth-century art and criticism. Picking key works such as Mondrian's New York Boogie Woogie and Jasper Johns' Flag, he argues that developments within abstraction have rendered the traditional theoretical and philosophical understandings inadequate. By looking at concepts of historical time and the notion of complexity, he develops a dynamic framework that allows for the reinterpretation and renewal of the tradition of abstraction. This is reinforced by a sustained encounter with contemporary abstract work by artists such as Lydia Dona, David Reed, Fabian Marcaccio, Helmut Dorner, Jonathan Lasker and Shirley Kaneda. What is Abstraction? offers a thorough and incisive examination of the nature of abstraction which will undoubtedly enrich our understanding of twentieth-century art. Other What is ...? titles include What is Post-Modernism? (Fourth Edition), What is Deconstruction?, What is Classicism? and the forthcoming What is Modernism?

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1854904345
• ISBN 13: 9781854904348
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 69