Art, Mimesis and the Avant-Garde: Aspects of a Philosophy of Difference / Edition 1

by Andrew Benjamin

Overview

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, 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. The theory of the avant-garde which is developed in the book, in which the avant-garde is a philosophical category rather than a historical marker, is a major contribution to art criticism. It brings the worlds of contemporary art criticism and contemporary philosophy closer together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415060479
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/22/1991
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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