A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art

Dr Mark Staff Brandl (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

240 Seiten

2023
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-07383-8 (ISBN)

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Metaphor, which allows us to talk about things by comparing them to other things, is one of the most ubiquitous and adaptable features of language and thought. It allows us to clarify meaning, yet also evaluate and transform the ways we think, create and act.

While we are alert to metaphor in spoken or written texts, it has, within the visual arts, been critically overlooked. Taking into consideration how metaphors are inventively embodied in the formal, technical, and stylistic aspects of visual artworks, Mark Staff Brandl shows how extensively artists rely on creative metaphor within their work. Exploring the work of a broad variety of artists – including Dawoud Bey, Dan Ramirez, Gaëlle Villedary, Raoul Deal, Sonya Clark, Titus Kaphar, Charles Boetschi, and more– he argues that metaphors are the foundation of visual thought, are chiefly determined by bodily and environmental experiences, and are embodied in artistic form. Visual artistic creation is philosophical thought. By grounding these arguments in the work of philosophers and cultural theorists, including Noël Carroll, Hans Georg Gadamer, and George Lakoff, Brandl shows how important metaphor is to understanding contemporary art.

A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art takes a neglected feature of the visual arts and shows us what a vital role it plays within them. Bridging theory and practice, and drawing upon a capacious array of examples, this book is essential reading for art historians and practitioners, as well as analytic philosophers working in aesthetics and meaning.

Mark Staff Brandl is an artist and art historian active internationally since 1980, with a PhD from the University of Zurich. He is Associate Professor of Art History Emeritus at the Art Academy of Liechtenstein and Higher Professional College for Art in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He has won various awards, had numerous publications, and his shows include galleries and museums in the US, Switzerland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Egypt, and the Caribbean.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Notes on Typographic Style

Introduction
1. What is Metaphor?
2. What is Visual Metaphor?
3. Why Visual Metaphors Matter
4. The Grammar of Visual Metaphor
5. Metaphor(m): A Theory of Central Visual Trope
6. Conceiving Visual Metaphors
7. Visual Metaphor in Criticism: Two Contemporary Painters' Works
8. Art History Timelines are Visual Metaphors

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	13.02.2023
Reihe/Serie	Aesthetics and Contemporary Art
Zusatzinfo	21 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Allgemeines / Lexika
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
ISBN-10	1-350-07383-0 / 1350073830
ISBN-13	978-1-350-07383-8 / 9781350073838
Zustand	Neuware