Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature

Amazon.com

Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy uses a seemingly infinite array of purely natural materials, from snow and ice to leaves, stone, and twigs in the creation of his one-of-a-kind sculptures. Unlike such artists as Christo and Michael Hiezer, whose works leave definite marks on the landscape, Goldsworthy's approach is to interrupt, shape, or in some other way temporarily alter or work with nature to produce his fragile, mutable pieces. To create "Broken Icicle," for example, Goldsworthy was only able to work on the sculpture in the early morning, when temperatures were below freezing. As with most of his works, ultimately, the materials used to create this piece returned to their natural state, leaving no trace of the artwork's existence save for the stunning photos in this book.

Customer Reviews:

Noteworthy.......2007-10-22

I plan to acquire more Andy Goldsworthy albums. His photo art calms the mind, eyes and soul...look at it while listening to your favorite calming music!

Awe inspiring photography from the master of nature........2007-09-17

This is classic Andy at his finest. A must have for your coffee table, bookshelf or any tucked away corner or your home. Fantastic intro book to get anyone to know Andy and his work. A great gift. Pick up a few for yourself.

Beautiful.......2007-07-30

This is a beautiful and original look at nature as art. Gorgeous photos and well put together, insightful commentary by the artist.

Absolutely superb.......2007-07-12

I cannot reccomend this book enough. It is one of the freshest and most unique photo / art books I have ever seen. Goldsworthy's ideas are rock solid and the book will amaze anyone with even the slightest desire to see good art.

When I had lost all hope ..........2007-05-12

I have tried to find Andy Goldsworthy's 'Ice and Sno' for quite a few years without any luck. I had already given up on ever finding it again at a reasonable price when this new title appeared. This books contains photographs of Andy's many and various creations, including quite a few in ice and snow. I am really happy with it!

The Art of Structural Engineering: The Work of Jorg Schlaich and His Team

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The Art of Structural Engineering: The Work of Jorg Schlaich and His Team
Alan Holgate
Manufacturer: Edition Axel Menges
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Leicht Weit/Light Structures
Frei Otto, Complete Works: Lightweight Construction - Natural Design
Structure as Architecture: A Source Book for Architects and Structural Engineers
Structural Glass
Membrane Structures: The Fifth Building Material

ASIN: 3930698676

Book Description

Cable-nets, membrane roofs, and unique bridges are among the structures designed by Schlaich and his partners.

Art Forms in Nature (Dover Pictorial Archives)

Average customer rating:

Worth the cost
Fun book, but better version with CD available
AWESOME GEOMETRIC FORMS
Great book with beautiful illustrations!!
Look for the edition published by Prestel as well!

Art Forms in Nature (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Ernst Haeckel
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)
Art Forms From The Ocean: The Radiolarian Atlas Of 1862
Haeckel's Art Forms from Nature CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)
Art Forms in the Plant World: 120 Full-Page Photographs (Dover Photography Collections)
Natural Art Forms (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

ASIN: 0486229874

Book Description

Multitude of strangely beautiful natural forms: Radiolaria, Foraminifera, Ciliata, diatoms, calcareous sponges, Siphonophora, star corals, starfishes, Protozoa, flagellates, brown seaweed, jellyfishes, sea-lilies, moss animals, sea-urchins, glass sponges, leptomedusae, horny corals, trunkfishes, true sea slugs, anthomedusae horseshoe crabs, sea-cucumbers, octopuses, bats, orchids, sea wasps, seahorse, a dragonfish, a frogfish, much more.

Customer Reviews:

Worth the cost.......2007-06-27

Depending on what you are purchasing this book for...my interest was for fiber art work which it fits the bill totally. The drawings from Mr. Haeckel are superb. I only wish they were in color...which you can purchase the more expensive color plate book. But still this is quite worth the money.

Fun book, but better version with CD available.......2007-04-24

I recommend a different version of this book, also sold on Amazon - link below. I am not sure if it contains the same set of illustrations, but many of the illos are in color, and it includes a CD containing all the pics from the book.

[...]

AWESOME GEOMETRIC FORMS.......2007-01-20

great book to just stare at. the amazing part is that it's real.

Great book with beautiful illustrations!!.......2006-05-05

I was looking for a great illustrated coffee table book and I found it right here! All the pictures are black-and-white and beautiful!

Look for the edition published by Prestel as well!.......2006-03-19

Anyone who 'knows' Dover books, will probably agree that they offer good quality for very reasonable prices. There is nothing 'wrong' with this book, except that all the plates are in black and white, and there is no information on Haeckel and his times. Prestel has also published this book of plates, with a highly informative article on Haeckel, his influences, and those influenced by him included, AND with many of the plates 'in color' (that is, often one color in different -subtle - hues, or a color scheme based on two colors). Unless you are a strictly 'black and white' person, I would advise you to look for the Prestel book.

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)

Average customer rating:

The online description versus customer comments
little book big eyes
The best architech out there, nature
Pay attention to the dimensions!
What a book.

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)
Ernst Haeckel , Olaf Breidbach , Richard Hartmann , and Irenaeus Eibl-Eibesfeldt
Manufacturer: Prestel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Art Forms From The Ocean: The Radiolarian Atlas Of 1862
Art Forms in Nature (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Haeckel's Art Forms from Nature CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)
Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765
Art Forms in the Plant World: 120 Full-Page Photographs (Dover Photography Collections)

ASIN: 3791319906

Amazon.com

Every biology student knows Ernst Haeckel as the originator of the "Biogenetic Law": ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Haeckel was a passionate student of the evolutionary shaping of biological forms, and Art Forms in Nature captures both his artistic sensibility and the scientific rigor he applied to all his studies. First published in 1904, Art Forms in Nature is a glorification of function and form, a demonstration of organic symmetry that has nothing--and everything--to do with nature as it actually exists. Each plate exhibits organisms carefully arranged and exquisitely detailed, "a symbiosis between decorative sketches and descriptive observations of nature," as Olaf Breidbach states in his fascinating introductory text. The radiolarians, medusae, rotifers, bryozoans, and even frogs and turtles lovingly recreated here are gorgeous and self-explanatory, rendered in delicate, filigreed lines, and colored gently with muted green, delicate pink, and sepia. Art students will appreciate the designs found in nature--scientists will love the evolutionary statement of form inherent in the beauty. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

Thirty beautiful postcards of some of the world's best-known artists, reproduced in the highest quality and printed on thick, durable paper -- Prestel postcard books make a perfect gift.

Customer Reviews:

The online description versus customer comments.......2007-09-17

The following is Amazon's description of this book:
Paperback: 139 pages
Publisher: Prestel Publishing (August 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3791319906
ISBN-13: 978-3791319902
Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.4 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds

More than one customer review states that they received a book that is only 3 inches wide. I hesitate to buy this book since the info posted may be misleading.

little book big eyes.......2007-07-10

decent for the price but it's made for little tiny people with little tiny little hands, cuz it has these little tiny ilustrations with bowed legs.

The best architech out there, nature.......2007-04-22

This book is full of illustration of organisms you can find on nature.I repeat, it is not fantasy, these beautiful illustration are drawings of things that are right there, sometimes too small to see with the naked eye, in nature, and one can only awe at such beauty and design skills. Haeckel did a great job combining biology with art, and it shows on this book.

A note of advise: these edition has color, the other one is black&white.

Pay attention to the dimensions!.......2007-03-10

I've wanted to get one of Haeckel's books for a while. His drawings are lovely, truely inspirational....BUT this book was a big disappointment, and one which could have been avoided had I paid closer attention to the product description. It is pocket-sized: 3 inches across!!

It's hard to see the magnificent detail in Haeckel's work on a page so small.

this is one of those things I would NEVER have bought if I picked it up in a book store. It looks like one of those little gift books..
so, if you buy this, do so with the knowledge that it is tiny, and consider buying the larger edition. it's what I would have done, had I looked at/ considered the dimensions of this book.

What a book........2007-01-03

Amazing images of pollen spores, bats' faces, moths, diatoms, and more - drawn by the master. Ernst Haeckel's prints were a huge influence in the Art Nouveau movement, and the introduction to the book discusses that. Just absolutely brilliant - a surreal and gorgeous look at nature at every scale.

The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture (Shambhala Pocket Classics)

Average customer rating:

a++++
Architects take notice
Elegant
Interesting, Helpful, Fuzzy
Mathematical Harmony in Nature

The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture (Shambhala Pocket Classics)
Gyorgy Doczi
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition
The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry (Dover Books on Art Instruction)
The Geometry of Art and Life
The Divine Proportion
Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice (Art and Imagination)

ASIN: 1590302591
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Book Description

One of the delights of life is the discovery and rediscovery of patterns of order and beauty in natureâdesigns revealed by slicing through a head of cabbage or an orange, the forms of shells and butterfly wings. These images are awesome not just for their beauty alone, but because they suggest an order underlying their growth, a harmony existing in nature. What does it mean that such an order exists; how far does it extend? The Power of Limits was inspired by those simple discoveries of harmony. The author went on to investigate and measure hundreds of patternsâancient and modern, minute and vast. His discovery, vividly illustrated here, is that certain proportions occur over and over again in all these forms. Patterns are also repeated in how things grow and are madeâby the dynamic union of oppositesâas demonstrated by the spirals that move in opposite directions in the growth of a plant. The joining of unity and diversity in the discipline of proportional limitations creates forms that are beautiful to us because they embody the principles of the cosmic order of which we are a part; conversely, the limitlessness of that order is revealed by the strictness of its forms. The author shows how we, as humans, are included in the universal harmony of form, and suggests that the union of complementary opposites may be a way to extend that harmony to the psychological and social realms as well.

Customer Reviews:

a++++.......2003-06-15

its a goood and extremely helpful book!

Architects take notice.......2003-05-24

A very good book an sacred geometry with lots of diagrams.

Elegant.......2001-12-29

This beautifully illustrated and diagrammed book attempts to show the harmony that exists in nature and all good art and architecture. Not only that, Doczi attempts to weave into this picture, (with some success) Pythagorean concepts of harmony and it's relation to growth in nature.
The essential concept in this book is the 'power of limits.' Doczi shows that this limiting factor is the golden section. And he does it using almost no math! The golden section has the powerful quality that division or expansion by this proportion always leads to harmonious growth. No matter how small or large is the division, there is never anything "left over" to create disharmony. This limiting factor is of transcendental power, thus "The Power of Limits."
Unregulated growth could never achieve anything but randomness, which is not what we observe in nature.
Of course in nature and in life it is impossible to achieve perfection. Yet Doczi elegantly explains how nature compensates for this inability by using the Fibonnaci sequence instead. Profusely illustrated with many detailed, easy-to-understand diagrams, this book is a must for those who wish to understand more deeply how our world is constructed, without wading through a lot of math.

Interesting, Helpful, Fuzzy.......2001-07-20

While I agree with the other reviewers that this book is both well written & well illustrated, the Jungian cant of the author feels too new-agey to me. Proportion is indeed present in the world, but to assign proprtion to EVERYTHING is an over-generalization, and to ascribe a metaphysical meaning to it based on this over-generalization is a bit much. Useful for the illustrations of proportion, a thing every designer ought to know, but when it wanders off into the woods it looses me.

Mathematical Harmony in Nature.......2001-06-08

Any serious observer of nature can tell you there are rhythms in nature, patterns that repeat themselves. Far from chaos, there is harmony. The Golden Section, A : B = B : A + B, is part of that harmony. From Fibonacci numbers to the Golden Rectangle, this book will awaken the reader to a sense of perfection, an incredible order, found virtually everywhere in nature. Beyond the interesting phenomena, there lies a larger message. This, all of this, did not happen by some cosmic accident.

Average customer rating:

Essentials/Abstraction
This is reference book that should be in every artist's library
All black & white photos except the cover....
Facinating approach to the study of form

Abstraction in Art and Nature
Nathan Cabot Hale
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Abstract Expressionism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Drawing | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Abstract Painting: Concepts and Techniques
Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design
Color in Contemporary Painting: Integrating Practice and Theory
The New Creative Artist: A Guide To Developing Your Creative Spirit
The New Acrylics

ASIN: 0486274829

Book Description

Stimulating, thought-provoking guide shows how to discover a rich new design source in the abstractions inherent in natural forms. Lines of growth and structure, water and liquid forms, weather and atmospheric patterns, luminosity, earth colors, many other elements are shown to be wellsprings of creative abstraction. Over 370 photographs and other illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Essentials/Abstraction.......2007-01-10

The elation of discovery when I read in the very first paragraph of this book...*the word abstraction...simply means the act of drawing out the essential qualities in a thing, a series of things or a situation*. This is what the book is about throughout--rhythmic flows and patterns.

Examples from this book include mention of several instances in which the orgonome or teardrop form exists in nature--in the pull of a magnetic field, in the shape of an apple seed and in the form of a ducks body, and how the jet form of water creates the same shape of a common mushroom sliced in half...as well as numerous other forms illustrated that may surprise the reader.

I could give many more examples, but the great thing about this book is that it is no mere science lesson--all the information is given in relation to art and art making. Numerous large and smaller photos and illustrations all in black & white, taken from nature and art, along with suggested drawing exercises, assist the visual type of person to more fully grasp the points made. The final brief chapter is on Color in Nature.

This book is exactly what I hoped it would be, when I ordered it based on the title alone...

This is reference book that should be in every artist's library.......2007-01-03

Concepts not easily grasped by the beginner/intermediate(like myself), but I know that I will go back to this book again and again as my skills grow.

All black & white photos except the cover...........2006-11-21

Not my idea of a gift book which is why I bought it. The photos do seem to have good values and a deeper look at the content could be rewarding. Just beware if you prefer art books in color. Also, the 1993 paperback with same title/author came to me with a different cover photo.

Facinating approach to the study of form.......1997-08-26

Hale has thought deeply on the meaning of forms and has found endless relationships between them. All organic matter follows laws which are written into their structure. For the artist, understanding these laws means that each new object is no longer unique, but part of a larger whole. This means that each new object (water mountains, trees, bodies) can be related to others, making the "new" object more familear

Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette (Texts & Documents)

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Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette (Texts & Documents)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Manufacturer: Getty Trust Publications: Getty Research Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Reference | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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History of the Art of Antiquity (Texts & Documents)
The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece (Texts & Documents)

ASIN: 0892366362

Book Description

Published in 1765, Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Osservazioni is an impassioned defense of the superiority of Roman architectural "invention" over the "beautiful and noble simplicity" of ancient Greece. In this three-part polemical masterpiece, the famed engraver and designer not only contends
that the Etruscans-not the Greeks-were the artistic mentors of the Romans but also argues for a Roman-inspired exuberance in design that draws freely on all forms and traditions of ancient art. Although Piranesi's essentially Baroque vision set him at odds with the austere Neoclassicism of his
contemporaries, his ideas were inspirational to such gifted eighteenth-century architects as Robert Adam, John Soane, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, and Etienne-Louis Boullee. Today, Piranesi's lively plea for imaginative eclecticism remains topical, as the debate continues over the relative merits of a
rational, minimal architecture versus an architecture rich in ornament and historical references.

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A Thorough Masterpiece

Renaissance Thought and the Arts
Paul Oskar Kristeller
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Medieval | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Surveys | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Medieval Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Renaissance Thought and its Sources
The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
The Renaissance Philosophy Of Man: Petrarca, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Vives
Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance
Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (New Approaches to European History)

ASIN: 0691020108

Book Description

Written by an eminent authority on the Renaissance, this collection of essays focuses on topics such as humanist learning, humanist moral thought, the diffusion of humanism, Platonism, music and learning during the early Renaissance, and the modern system of arts in relation to the Renaissance.

Customer Reviews:

A Thorough Masterpiece.......2001-10-11

"Renaissance Thought and the Arts" presents a brilliant introduction into Renaissance culture. The collection of separately published articles, first edited in 1965 and now added by a precious afterword, makes up a well-rounded unit. The late Kristeller, one of the most respected writers on humanism, explains in the first section (ch. 1-3) the concept of Renaissance and provides a fundamental insight into its thought and literature. In the first chapter he argues convincingly against tendences to define Renaissance by a certain set of ideas and exposes the problems that are central to humanistic thought, simultaneously giving an overview over the different literary genres inherited from ancient literature. In the second chapter on the moral philosophy of those times, he emphasizes its impact on the modern concept of human dignity. Thereupon, he demonstrates how humanism, originated and developed in Italy, hence spread out into entire Europe, whereas some scholars had claimed that humanistic ideas emerged in different European countries simultaneous and independently. Some other important aspects of Renaissance philosophy are discussed in the second section (ch. 4-6) on Platonism and Aristotelism, the most impressive essay being that on the place of man in the universe. At the heart of the final section on the arts (ch. 7-10) is the comprehensive study which describes in detail the development of our concept of the arts, and its predecessors in ancient times and the middle Ages. Thus Kristeller profoundly explores the history of the principal problem of aesthetics, that is the essence of art, which he touches also in the afterword on creativity and tradition, prudently distinguishing the significance of each for aesthetic value and appreciation.

Book Description

While the collected writings of many major 20th-century artists, including Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt, have been published, Mark Rothko’s writings have only recently come to light, beginning with the critically acclaimed The Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art. Rothko’s other written works have yet to be brought together into a major publication. Writings on Art fills this significant void; it includes some 90 documents—including short essays, letters, statements, and lectures—written by Rothko over the course of his career. The texts are fully annotated, and a chronology of the artist’s life and work is also included.
This provocative compilation of both published and unpublished writings from 1934--69 reveals a number of things about Rothko: the importance of writing for an artist who many believed had renounced the written word; the meaning of transmission and transition that he experienced as an art teacher at the Brooklyn Jewish Center Academy; his deep concern for meditation and spirituality; and his private relationships with contemporary artists (including Newman, Motherwell, and Clyfford Still) as well as journalists and curators.
As was revealed in Rothko’s The Artist’s Reality, what emerges from this collection is a more detailed picture of a sophisticated, deeply knowledgeable, and philosophical artist who was also a passionate and articulate writer.

Customer Reviews:

Silences Broken.......2006-05-28

Mark Rothko created some of the more spiritually radiant paintings of any artist form any ear. That his paintings were abstractions - blocks of color conjoined by a marriage of midline intercourse of pigment - makes this accomplishment something that still befuddles art critics and historians and viewers alike. Here at last, some thirty-six years after his death by suicide, editor Miguel Lopez-Remiro has gathered notes from his addresses to Pratt Institute, letters to artists and friends and curators and writers, proving that Rothko was not the silent warden of explanations about his work: he was an eloquent spokesman and writer who simply felt that words were unnecessary in people's experience of his visual statements.

He wrote, 'I have never thought that painting a picture has anything to so with self-expression. It is a communication about the world to someone else. After the world is convinced about this communication it changes. The world was never the same after Picasso or Miro. Theirs was a view of the world which transformed our vision of things.' Kind accolades from a man once thought to be a recluse. In response to art critics' questions he merely state 'A painting doesn't need anybody to explain what it is about. If it is any good, it speaks for itself.'

Rothko's writings collected in this book demonstrate that he did indeed have the ability to discuss his mysteriously beautiful works: he also makes it clear that the communication between his paintings and the viewer should relay on the spiritual needs and vulnerabilities. These letters and essays are informative, well arranged chronologically by Lopez-Remiro, and graciously allowed to stand alone for their impact, much in the way his paintings must stand alone - usually in context with other Rothko paintings in isolated rooms with special lighting that gives the work the sense in frailty and intransigence. Highly recommended reading for those who have experience the miracle of standing before a Rothko image. Grady Harp, May 06

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: 4-volume Set

Average customer rating:

A Fine Speciality Encyclopedia
Art and Other Matters

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: 4-volume Set

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Aesthetics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Reference | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Ontology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Art | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0195113071

Book Description

The first reference of its kind surveys the full breadth of critical thought on art, culture, and society--from classical philosophy to contemporary critical theory. Featuring 600 original articles by distinguished scholars from many fields and countries, it is a comprehensive survey of major concepts, thinkers, and debates about the meaning, uses, and value of all the arts--from painting and sculpture to literature, music, theater, dance, television, film, and popular culture. Of special interest are in-depth surveys of Western aesthetics and broad coverage of non-Western traditions and theories of art. The work includes cross references, bibliographies, and an index.

Customer Reviews:

A Fine Speciality Encyclopedia.......2006-02-08

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: 4-volume Set edited by Michael Kelly (Oxford University Press) many encyclopedias no matter how extensive or learned the articles, often give the curious reader a sense of flatness, a surface, broad sweeping plane, to which there is no depth, no questions left unanswered. The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics however has avoided this pitfall. The articles are extensive, well-written and leave this reader with a sense of engagement, even practical knowledge, so that I might listen to a piece of music with more perception, enjoy a painting in new ways, and even be so delighted as to hunt down some of the titles listed in the bibliographies at the end of the articles. This encyclopedia could and should enjoy a wide readership because it more than provides the scope of aesthetics today; it also invites readers into the participation and recognition of beauty.

Excerpt: Aesthetics is uniquely situated to serve as a meeting place for numerous academic disciplines and cultural traditions. While it is a single branch of philosophy con¬cerned with art, aesthetics is also a part of other disciplines-such as art history, literary theory, law, sociology-that reflect equally, if differently, about art in its natural and cultural contexts. At the same time, aesthetics is an eighteenth-century European devel¬opment that has not been duplicated anywhere else. Of course, all other cultures around the world have their own "art," and most also have traditions of reflecting philosophically about it. To the extent that they have developed such reflection, whatever they have chosen to call it, these cultures are engaged in a practice related to Western aesthetics. So aesthetics is, in academic terms, both singular and general, and, in cultural terms, both local and global. To capture these multiple dimensions, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics has been created using a definition of aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture, and nature."
The purpose of this encyclopedia is to contribute to a discursive public sphere in which people representing the disciplines and traditions engaged in aesthetics will be able to articulate their perspectives on the field, thereby fostering dialogue and, where possible, constructing common ground without imposing consensus. To this end, the encyclopedia, which is the first English-language reference work on this scale devoted to aesthetics, of¬fers a combination of historical reference material and critical discussions of contempo¬rary aesthetics intended for general readers and experts alike.
HISTORY OF AESTHETICS
The term aesthetics is derived from the ancient Greek word aisthesis (also spelled aesthe¬sis), which means perception or sensation. In its original usage, the word was related to perceptual or sensory knowledge, usually in contrast to conceptual or rational knowledge, but had little or no specific relevance to art. The initial lack of connection between aes¬thetics and art reflects the fact that, at the time, there was no word for what Westerners now regard as art; the Greek word for art, techne, is closer to the English word craft. Of course, the philosophy of art existed in Plato and Aristotle's age, just as there was Greek "art." Nevertheless, aesthetics did not become connected to art until the eighteenth cen¬tury. Developments within art and philosophy-as well as within other disciplines con¬cerned with art-account for the eventual link between aesthetics and art that is the his¬torical subject of this encyclopedia.
From the classical era to the Middle Ages, reflection on art developed through the work of philosophers such as Augustine, Plotinus, Aquinas, and others. During the Renais¬sance, when art flourished in unparalleled ways, such reflection also experienced a revival as many classical aesthetic ideas were rediscovered and developed in new directions. What was most common during these periods, however, were treatises about individual arts, such as painting, music, or poetry, rather than any theory about art in general. There was also considerable discussion about whether it was possible to distinguish art from craft. Finally, when people wrote about the arts, they typically did so without philosophically analyzing the principles of criticism they were implicitly invoking. In short, aesthetics proper had not yet emerged.
All of this changed in the eighteenth century, mostly in France, Germany, and Great Britain. There was a historical coincidence between a new-found tendency on the part of writers to generalize about the arts and a heightened concern in philosophy for sensory knowledge independent of logical knowledge. The distinction of types of knowledge, inspired in part by the birth of modern science based on empiricism, introduced aesthetics into philosophy; but, following the lead of Alexander Baumgarten, aesthetics still had little to do with art. This was a strange development indeed in the inaugural century of aes¬thetics: those beginning to generalize about art did not use the term aesthetics, while those practicing aesthetics were not principally interested in art. It was not until Immanuel Kant's Critique of judgment (1790) that these two tendencies were systematically united, setting the agenda for aesthetics ever since.
Although this union was unquestionably an important step in the early and subse¬quent history of aesthetics, overemphasis on it tends to obscure an equally important di¬mension of this history, which is central to the rationale for the encyclopedia. Although it is true that aesthetics emerged in the eighteenth century within philosophy, this would not have been possible without developments in art and cultural criticism that had been evolving since at least the Renaissance. Critics-whether philosophers, poets, or writers-began writing about art in general rather than just about the individual arts. Some compared the different arts, as was the case in the "Ut pictura poesis" ("as a paint¬ing, so a poem") tradition, whereas others argued that each art form could be properly understood only on individual terms: painting is independent of poetry, which is inde¬pendent of music, and so on. In its first century, aesthetics was thus marked by a funda¬mental philosophical disagreement about whether generalizing about art was an ad¬vancement in the understanding of the arts. It is this disagreement, rather than just the tendency toward generalizations, that separated Western aesthetics in the eighteenth cen¬tury from its prior history as well as from other cultural traditions.
In that same period, the individual arts in Europe were becoming more accessible to the public than they had ever been before, for they were no longer so closely tied to reli¬gion and politics once the church and monarchy ceased being the exclusive patrons of the arts. There was, in short, a secularization and democratization of the arts and culture in the eighteenth century that contributed to the formation of a cultural public sphere. Crit¬icism was the term most widely used to characterize discussions about the arts and cul¬ture; in fact, the term critique, which Kant transformed in his Critique of Pure Reason, be¬gan in part as the German translation of the English word criticism. This transformation marks the birth of aesthetics as a part of philosophy, but it also highlights the fact that philosophical aesthetics emerged out of a broader cultural context.
From its inception until the present, aesthetics has continued to be distinguished by both its philosophical and cultural roles, even though some theorists have at times at-tempted to restrict aesthetics to just one of its roles. Moreover, the fact that aesthetics has always had these dual roles has made the present encyclopedia both possible and neces¬sary: possible, because the entries here could not have been written unless there were peo¬ple in various disciplines outside of philosophy writing philosophically about art, culture, and nature; and necessary, because aesthetics remains incomplete if its cultural role is not developed. The goal of the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics is to trace the genealogy of aesthetics in such a way as to integrate these two roles.
The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics has been created, and may now be received, in a skeptical environment. It is important to address this skepticism here because it is based on a mis¬conception of aesthetics that the encyclopedia aims to correct in an effort to revitalize the field.
Many people concerned with art and culture today seem to want to distance them-selves from aesthetics. Ask students or general readers what aesthetics is, and most will say that it has something to do with beauty (an impression reinforced by the colloquial use of aesthetic to mean "beautiful") and that it is a thing of the past. Artists, as a group, rarely express any more interest in aesthetics than Barnett Newman did when he remarked that aesthetics is for artists what ornithology is for birds. Art historians and anthropologists typically do not identify with aesthetics either, unless their research involves art created in periods when aesthetics was still considered relevant. Finally, others involved with con-temporary art-critics, legal theorists, sociologists-also do not generally see themselves as concerned with aesthetics, since they regard it as part of philosophy rather than of their own fields.
Why do these diverse groups of people distance themselves from aesthetics, even though they all are involved with art and culture? What they typically object to is the idea that art can be understood according to a set of universal principles about its immutable properties; the term aesthetics suggests this idea to them. It is seen as a branch of philoso¬phy that effectively died once modern art began to challenge the classical view of art as the imitation, often in the guise of beauty, of the universal qualities of nature or reality. So aesthetics is thereby relegated to the history of art and philosophy prior to modernism.
Ask contemporary aestheticians what they do, however, and they are likely to respond that aesthetics is the philosophical analysis of the beliefs, concepts, and theories implicit in the creation, experience, interpretation, or critique of art. It would be unusual for them to include beauty as one of their major research topics; they talk more often about the prob¬lems of meaning or representation in connection with works of art. Moreover, most aestheticians-both analytic (Anglo-American) and continental (European, exclusive of Great Britain) alike-would agree that there are no universal properties of art and that art can be defined, if at all, only in historical (if still philosophical) terms. In fact, both analytic and continental aesthetics in the last fifty years have been dominated by anti-essentialism: the view either that art has no essence or that it is impossible for us to ascertain what its essence is. This means that nearly all contemporary aestheticians are equally critical of the idea of aesthetics that is rejected by nonphilosophers.
Moreover, not only is it a misconception to identify contemporary aesthetics with the universalist idea of aesthetics, the history of aesthetics is replete with critiques of that same idea and alternatives to it. These critiques were evident even in the eighteenth century. For example, although there was considerable discussion of beauty at that time, aesthetics emerged only once beauty lost its status as an objective or transcendental property, which it virtually had since Plato. Modern philosophers argued that beauty is not a property of objects (e.g., works of art) experienced or judged as beautiful; rather, it is a relational property between subjects and objects. So aesthetics began, in part, with the following problem: How is it possible to speak with any objectivity about matters of taste if beauty is subjective? The question of the universality of taste arose in this same context. Whereas some philosophers argued that taste is universal despite being subjective, others were doubtful that universality was possible again after the subjective turn in our understand¬ing of beauty. This debate was not resolved at the time, nor has it been since. This means, however, that the conventional view of aesthetics held by its critics (and some of its sup-porters) is as imprecise relative to the history of aesthetics as it is to its present state. So the skepticism about aesthetics is best addressed by reevaluating the meaning and history of aesthetics; such reevaluation is what this encyclopedia offers.
There is also a prevailing skepticism today about encyclopedias that should be dis¬cussed here as well. One of the marks of our present age, which is typically characterized as postmodern, is a skepticism toward any claims about philosophical systems or histori¬cal grand narratives (i.e., ones that emphasize the unity and ultimate goal of historical de¬velopment). Many people today believe that, in principle, such systems are incomplete and all historical narratives impose a false unity while they exclude certain cultures' per¬spectives. In the interest of pluralism, we are encouraged to abandon any and all systems and narratives. The publication of an encyclopedia, especially one that gives philosophy a central role, may seem to violate these postmodern injunctions, though only if it is thought to venture a narrative or system of aesthetics. Because of this attitude, it was even sug¬gested that we exclude the word encyclopedia from the title of this work.
Our response to this skepticism was to incorporate the contemporary doubts about the encyclopedia into its very structure. This has been achieved in various ways, principally by including the following among the entries themselves: (1) critiques of aesthetics; (2) discussions of postmodernism; (3) composite (multi-article) entries so topics could be analyzed from several perspectives; and (4) representations of virtually all the disciplines involved with art and culture, even though people in these fields may not see themselves as being engaged in aesthetics. In none of these cases was any effort made to shape a sys¬tem or a grand narrative of aesthetics. Efforts were made to be comprehensive, however, though here comprehensive means as complete a representation as possible of all the com¬peting ideas about aesthetics.
GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
The encyclopedia includes more than six hundred essays, alphabetically arranged, on ap¬proximately four hundred individuals, concepts, periods, theories, issues, and movements in the history of aesthetics. The entries range from the most ancient aesthetic traditions around the world to the Greco-Roman era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the En¬lightenment, Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism, up to the present. The cen¬tral historical focus, however, is the genealogy of Western aesthetics from its inception in the early eighteenth century in Europe to the present. How was the Western understand¬ing of art and culture transformed during that period? How has it developed since then? What is its present status? Specifically, how have key aesthetic concepts and issues-such as appropriation, autonomy, beauty, genius, iconology, ideology, metaphor, originality, semiotics, sexuality, taste, and truth-evolved?
The entries in the encyclopedia have been written by more than five hundred philoso¬phers, art historians, literary theorists, psychologists, feminist theorists, legal theorists, so¬ciologists, anthropologists, and others who reflect critically on art, culture, and nature. The range of contributors is important because of the interdisciplinary nature of aesthet¬ics, both now and throughout its history. For example, one cannot understand Romanti¬cism and appreciate its aesthetic significance without studying what it means in philo¬sophical and literary terms as well as how it manifested itself differently in the visual arts and in music. There are numerous topics of such conceptual or historical complexity in the encyclopedia that can be fully understood only if they are approached through multi¬ple disciplines.
The goal, however, is not to impose or legitimate any single discipline's way of under-standing aesthetics. Philosophy, for example, certainly occupies a central position in the encyclopedia; its important task is to clarify the terms, principles, concepts, and theories employed by the disciplines (including philosophy) engaged in aesthetics. But philosophy is also just one of many disciplines, evidenced by the fact that a majority of the encyclo¬pedia entries were written by nonphilosophers. Moreover, the purpose of the work is not to resolve the differences among the various disciplines; rather, it is to provide, as a good encyclopedia should, a comprehensive catalog of what these differences are, how they originated, what the disciplines may have in common, and what is at stake in the conflict¬ing views contributors espouse. Our aim has been to provide as much reliable information as we could assemble so that readers can make informed decisions about how best to un¬derstand "Beauty," the "Origins of Aesthetics," "Popular Culture," the "Comparative Aesthetics" of the African and Western traditions, "Kant," or any of the other topics in¬cluded in the encyclopedia.
At every moment of its history, aesthetics has been related in complementary and crit¬ical ways to the art of its time. So there is considerable discussion in the encyclopedia of major art periods (e.g., the Renaissance), movements (Modernism), and issues (perspec¬tive) in the history of art. Such discussions range from Greco-Roman, Baroque, or Im¬pressionist art to the most contemporary art forms, such as conceptual, installation, or performance art. The focus in these entries is both historical and theoretical so readers will understand what is unique about each art-historical issue and how it has influenced aesthetic theory.
While the aesthetic history and art periodization utilized here are largely Western, com¬parisons are made throughout the encyclopedia with non-Western art forms and their dis¬tinct aesthetic traditions. Such comparisons are made in two ways: (1) by having overview essays on each of these traditions (e.g., Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Latin American) and, where possible, (2) by integrating non-Western perspectives into discussions of central aesthetic concepts, principles, and issues (e.g., Japanese appreciation of nature). The first measure helps readers to understand these other traditions, which in some cases have greatly influenced their Western counterparts or have been shaped by them. The second measure is important so that non-Western ideas of aesthetics are not isolated from their Western counterparts. The two practices combined serve, in effect, to historicize the tra¬dition of Western aesthetics by demonstrating that it is, after all, just one of many tradi¬tions.
The emphasis in the entries on key figures (e.g., Plato, Kant, Heidegger) is theoretical rather than biographical. The contributors explain the subjects' ideas about aesthetics, while clarifying the historical and conceptual contexts for these ideas. References to clarify these contexts are provided in the bibliographies, along with biographical titles, where pos¬sible. In addition to the lengthy entries on major thinkers, there are short (five-hundred-word) entries on some significant but lesser-known figures (e.g., Charles Batteux and Moses Mendelssohn). The aim here is to paint a comprehensive picture of the historical background of modern and contemporary aesthetics.
Coverage of many central individuals and concepts in aesthetics and most major art forms (e.g., architecture, dance, photography) has been arranged in composite entries, that is, several separate articles arranged under one headword. The rationale for this type of entry is to give voice to: (1) extensive histories of a specific topic (e.g., beauty or land¬scape) too broad to be handled by one contributor; (2) independent philosophical views of a single central issue (e.g., metaphor or autonomy); (3) individual perspectives on a topic (e.g., historicism) that is important in each of several disciplines (e.g., aesthetics, art
history, literary theory); (4) several accounts of an activity (e.g., criticism) that is prac¬ticed differently in the particular arts (e.g., music, art, dance); (5) individuals (e.g., Kant) who are central in the history of aesthetics because of their influential accounts of key aes¬thetic concepts; and (6) other cases where there are significantly diverse aspects or ac-counts of a single aesthetic issue.

Art and Other Matters.......2000-04-17

Astonishment and relief when coming across the four volumes of this encyclopedia. After scrounging for scraps of (imprecise, obscure or contradictory) information in various encyclopedia, academic journals and dictionaries, I was relieved and impressed at the breadth and accessibility of the articles. Covers familiar subjects well and extends to related disciplines in psychology, physiology, as well as unexpected regions of pop culture. Detailed and authoritative, and well overdue. (Just a pity it's so expensive).

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