Phenomenology of the visual arts (even the frame)

266 Pages·2009·2.478 MB·English

by  Crowther, Paul

phenomenology of
the visual arts
(even the frame)

Phenomenology of
the Visual arts
(even the frame)
Paul Crowther
stanford university press
Stanford, California 2009
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
This book has been published with the assistance of the Visual
Communication and Expertise Initiative at Jacobs University Bremen.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the
prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crowther, Paul.
Phenomenology of the visual arts (even the frame) / Paul Crowther.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8047-6214-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Art—Philosophy. 2. Phenomenology and art. 3. Aesthetics.
I. Title.
n66.c76 2009
701—dc22
2009007529
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Typeset at Stanford University Press in 10/14 Minion
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Against Reductionism: The Intrinsic Significance of the Image 9
2 Figure, Plane, and Frame: The Phenomenology of
Pictorial Space 35
3 Pictorial Representation and Self-Consciousness 60
4 The Presence of the Painter 72
5 Sculpture and Transcendence 86
6 The Logic and Phenomenology of Abstract Art 99
7 The Logic of Conceptualism 120
8 The Phenomenology of Photography 139
9 Ontology and Aesthetics of Digital Art 153
10 The Body of Architecture 173
Conclusion: Art History and Art Practice—Some Future
Possibilities 207
Notes 223
Index 243

illustrations
1 A Kwakiutl Indian split image of a bird motif 47
2 George Braque, Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Mantelpiece, 1911
Tate Modern, London 48
3 Marcel Duchamp, Bottlerack, 1961, The Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia 87
4 James Turrell, Roden Crater, satellite view 93
5 Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, Tate
Modern, London 95
6 Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1948, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
New York 100
7 Antony Caro, Table Piece LXXXVIII (The Deluge), 1969–1970,
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York 101
8 Eli Bornstein, Tripart Hexaplane Construction No. 1, 2005–2007,
Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen 115
9 Marcel Duchamp, Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?, 1921, replica 1964,
Tate Modern, London 128
10 Giovanni Anselmo, Untitled, 1968, Musée, Centre Georges
Pompidou—National d’Art Moderne, Paris 132
11 Cassandra Dam, Performance, 1993 135
12 Erwin Redl, Matrix II, 2000, Museum of Contemporary Art
San Diego, San Diego 159
13 Char Davies, Vertical Tree, Osmose, 1995 164
14 Parthenon, 5th century b.c., Athens, Greece 186
15 Arch of Constantine, 312, Rome, Italy 187
16 Leon Battista Alberti, Santa Maria Novella, completed 1470,
Florence, Italy 189
17 Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, 1638–1641,
Rome, Italy 190
18 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, 1658–1678, façade,
Rome, Italy 192
Illustrations
19 Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, ca. 1929, Poissy, France 194
20 Mies van der Rohe, Lake Shore Drive Apartments, finished 1951,
Chicago 195
21 Daniel Libeskin, Food Theatre Café (The Serpentine Gallery), 2001,
London 196
22 Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin, Aerial View, opened 2001,
Berlin 198
23 Kazimir Malevich, Supremus No. 57, ca. 1916, Tate Modern, London 209
24 Barbara Hepworth, Seated Figure 1932–1933, Tate St Ives, St Ives 211
25 Jackson Pollock, Full Fathom Five, 1947, Museum of Modern Art,
New York 214
26 Mojca Oblak, The Visitation, 2006, installation/performance/
exhibition, Equirna Gallery, Ljubljana 218
viii
acknowledgements
In terms of its origins, this book has evolved over a number of years. It consists
of new material, together with revised and, in some cases, much extended ver-
sions of work previously published (sometimes in hard to find sources).
A few very short extracts from Chapter 1 are included in Art History Versus
Aesthetics, ed. James Elkins (Routledge: London, 2006), 123–128. Chapter 2 is a
much extended version of a paper entitled ‘Pictorial Space and the Possibility
of Art,’ published in the British Journal of Aesthetics 48 (2008): 175–192. Part of
Chapter 4 was published as ‘Painting, Abstraction, Metaphysics: Merleau-Ponty
and the Invisible’, in Symposium 8, no. 2 (2004): 1–14. Chapter 5 appeared as
‘Transcendence and Sculpture’ in Painting, Sculpture, and the Spiritual Dimen-
sion: The Kingston and Winchester Papers, ed. Stephen J. Newton and Brandon
Taylor (Oneiros: London, 2003), 123–132. Chapter 6 is a much extended ver-
sion of a paper entitled ‘The Logic of Abstract Art’ published in The Structurist
(Fall, 2008): 58–63. Chapter 9 is a slightly revised version of a paper of the same
title that was published in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 66, no. 2
(2008): 161–170.
Thanks are due to my assistant Carin Baban for her exemplary work in pre-
paring the manuscript for publication.
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