Overview

This book explores the relation of abstract art to nature. Traditional picturing and sculpture are based on conventions of resemblance between the work and that which it is a representation ""of"". Abstract works, in contrast, adopt alternative modes of visual representation, or break down and reconfigure the mimetic conventions of pictorial art and sculpture. Obviously this means that abstract art takes many different forms. However, this diversity should not mask some key structural features; these center on two basic relations to nature (understanding nature in the broadest sense -- to comprise the world of recognisable objects, creatures, organisms, processes, and states of affairs). The first involves abstracting from nature, to give selected aspects of it a new and extremely unfamiliar appearance. The second involves abstract art as the affirmation of a relatively unconstrained natural creativity that issues in new, autonomous forms that are not constrained by mimetic conventions. (Such creativity is often attributed to the power of the unconscious.) The book contains three categories of essays: 1) those on classical modernism (Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Arp, early American abstraction), 2) those on post-war abstraction (Pollock, Still, Newman, Smithson, Noguchi, Arte Povera, Michaux, postmodern developments), and 3) those of a broader art historical and philosophical

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Crowther (National University of Ireland, Galway) ,  Isabel Wünsche (Jacobs University, Bremen,Germany)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.730kg
ISBN:  

9780415899932

ISBN 10:   0415899931
Pages:   310
Publication Date:   19 June 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Selected Contents: 1. Life into Art: Nature Philosophy, the Life Sciences, and Abstract Art Isabel Wünsche 2. Mondrian’s First Diamond Composition: Spatial Totality and the Plane of the Starry Sky Marek Wieczorek 3. Man, Space and the Zero of Form: Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism and the Natural World Christina Lodder 4. The Role of Mathematical Structure, Natural Form and Pattern in the Art Theory of Wassily Kandinsky: The Quest for Order and Unity Christopher Short 5. ""We want to produce like a plant that produces a fruit"": Hans Arp and the ""Nature Principle"" Astrid von Asten 6. Natural Forces and Phenomena as Inspiration and Meaning in Early American Abstraction Herbert R. Hartel, Jr. 7. Jackson Pollock: The Sin of Images Elizabeth Langhorne 8. Clyfford Still’s Regionalist Shamanism Stephen Polcari 9. ""Man is Present"": Barnett Newman’s Search for the Experience of the Self Eva Ehninger 10. Nature, Entropy, and Robert Smithson’s Utopian Vision of a Culture of Decay John G. Hatch 11. Embodied Nature: Isamu Noguchi’s Intetra Fountain Dominika Glogowski 12. The Arte Povera Experience: Nature Re-Presented Laura Petican 13. Nature’s Hand: Writing Abstraction in the Work of Henri Michaux Birgit Mersmann 14. Abstract Art and Techno-Nature: The Postmodern Dimension Paul Crowther 15. Art, Beauty, and the Sacred: Four Ways to Abstraction Karsten Harries 16. The Complexities of ""Abstracting"" from Nature Andrew Inkpin 17.Meaning in Abstract Art: From Ur-Nature to the Transperceptual Paul Crowther"

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Author Information

Paul Crowther is Chair of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway Isabel Wunsche is Associate Professor of Art and Art History at Jacobs University, Bremen

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