Art Theory Category
How To Talk About Art, Part 3 – Interrogating What We See (Rebekah Gordon)
The following is the third of a three-part series. The first installment can be found here, the second here. In the past two installments of our “How to Talk About Art” series, we discussed the nature of art and the predominant forms which it takes. This installment tackles the many and…
Hegel And The Buddha in Popular Culture and Art, Part 2 (Dion Peoples)
The following is the second part of a two-part series. The first installment can be found here. The Dhamma, when told to someone, conditions the mind of the artist, who then becomes conditioned and forms ideas according to his biases or other preferences. Hegel writes in the Phenomenology of Mind: “…spirit…
Hegel And The Buddha in Popular Culture and Art, Part 1 (Dion Peoples)
The following is the first of a two-part series. The second installment can be found here. In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake, art…
The Ontology Of Doodling and Everyday Image-Work (Sergio Figueiredo)
“Consider what is at stake in our world today, registered in the basic fact that the anthropocene coincides with electracy. We notice immediately that prayer and engineering do not suffice, and no one doubts they are trying. We desire effective change but are not able, we cannot despite our will and knowledge. Here…
“When Did Beauty Become So F…n’ Ugly?” (Davor Džalto)
In Jonathan Parker’s movie Untitled (2009) we find an insightful (and also cynical) description of some of the major features of the contemporary art world. One of the main characters, Josh (Eion Bailey), is a successful commercial painter who is nicely positioned within the contemporary art market. Josh…
On Affect Theory And Art Criticism, Part 2 (Jeremy LeMahieu)
The following is the second installment of a two-part series. The first part can be found here. There are two common methods of writing about this experience. One describes the experience and brings it into the realm of representation. The other explains how the experience was created through a process…
On Affect Theory And Art Criticism, Part 1 (Jeremy LeMahieu)
The following is the first installment of a two-part series. There it is. Here you are. The encounter with art. Before, during, and after the recognition of the art object. Before, during, and after the art has been broken down into its essential formal elements. Before, during, and after having…
But Is It Art? – Searching For Simple, Practical, And Illuminating Answers, Part 2 (Jakob Zaaiman)
The following is a second installment of a two-part series. The first part can be found here. The question then arises, how does the “theatrical pretense” – and its invitation to a theatrical narrative – relate to inanimate crafted objects such as paintings, or sculptures? The answer is that, in the…
But Is It Art? – Searching For Simple, Practical, And Illuminating Answers (Jakob Zaaiman)
The following is the first installment of a two-part series. “Art” desperately needs a handy, practical definition, not of the scholarly conceptual variety, but rather of the plain and simple sort that you can usefully take with you into a gallery, and apply directly to what you see. You want…
Ambient Rhetoric And Graphic Novels (Sergio C. Figueiredo)
In the fall of 2015 I taught a Literary Genre course Kennesaw State University in Georgia on the Graphic Novel (ENGL 3230 Syllabus). I taught it from the perspective of rhetorical genres as described by Carolyn Miller in “Genre as Social Action.” the features of which are as follows: Genre…