Art, Mimesis and the Avant-Garde : Aspects of a Philosophy of Difference

ISBN-13: 9780415060479 / Angielski / Twarda / 1991 / 217 str.

Andrew E. Benjamin

Opis

This book explores the relationship between art and philosophy. Andrew Benjamin argues for a reworking of the task of philosophy in terms of the centrality of ontology. It is in relation to this centrality, understood through the differences between modes of being, that art, mimesis and the avant-garde come to be presented. A fundamental part of this book is the original interpretations of important contemporary painters and their paintings: Lucian Freud's self-portraits, Francis Bacon's use of mirrors, R.B. Kitaj and Jewish identity, and Anselm Kiefer and iconoclasm. Apart from painting, Benjamin considers architecture, literature and the philosophical writings of Walter Benjamin and Descartes in elaborating the various aspects of ontological difference.

Spis treści

INTRODUCTION: INAUGURATING REPETITION 1 INTERPRETING REFLECTIONS: PAINTING MIRRORS 2 SPACING AND DISTANCING 3 BETRAYING FACES: LUCIAN FREUD’S SELF[1]PORTRAITS 4 PRESENT REMEMBRANCE: ANSELM KIEFER’S ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY 5 KITAJ AND THE QUESTION OF JEWISH IDENTITY 6 MALEVICH AND THE AVANT-GARDE 7 EISENMAN AND THE HOUSING OF TRADITION 8 PLURALISM, THE COSMOPOLITAN AND THE AVANT-GARDE 9 THE DECLINE OF ART: BENJAMIN’S AURA 10 TRADITION AND EXPERIENCE: WALTER BENJAMIN’S ‘ON SOME MOTIFS IN BAUDELAIRE’ 11 DESCARTES’ FABLE: THE DISCOURS DE LA METHODE 12 THE REDEMPTION OF VALUE: LAPORTE, WRITING AS ABKURZUNG

O autorze

Andrew Benjamin lectures in philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Translation and the Nature of Philosophy (1989) and What is Deconstruction? (1988, with Christopher Norris), and has edited several collections including Post-structuralist Classics (1988) and Problems of Modernity: Adorno and Benjamin (1989), both in the Warwick Studies in Philosophy and Literature series published by Routledge.