Art and Phenomenology

Philosophy of art is traditionally concerned with the definition, appreciation and value of art. Through a close examination of art from recent centuries, Art and Phenomenology is one of the first books to explore visual art as a mode of experiencing the world itself, showing how in the words of Merleau-Ponty ‘Painting does not imitate the world, but is a world of its own’.

An outstanding series of chapters by an international group of contributors examine the following questions:

Paul Klee and the body in art

colour and background in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of art

self-consciousness and seventeenth-century painting

Vermeer and Heidegger

philosophy and the painting of Rothko

embodiment in Renaissance art

sculpture, dance and phenomenology.

Art and Phenomenology is essential reading for anyone interested in phenomenology, aesthetics, and visual culture.