Art in Mind: How Contemporary Images Shape Thought by: Ernst van Alphen
Softcover. University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 228 pages, b&w illustrations. Art has the power to affect our thinking, changing not only the way we view and interact with the world but also how we create it. In Art in Mind, Ernst van Alphen probes this idea of art as a commanding force with the capacity to shape our intellect and intervene in our lives. Rather than interpreting art as merely a reflection of our social experience or a product of history, van Alphen here argues that art is a historical agent, or a cultural creator, that propels thought and experience forward. Examining a broad range of works, van Alphen--a renowned art historian and cultural theorist--demonstrates how art serves a socially constructive function by actually experimenting with the parameters of thought. Employing work from artists as diverse as Picasso, Watteau, Francis Bacon, Marlene Dumas, and Matthew Barney, he shows how art confronts its viewers with the "pain points" of cultural experience-genocide, sexuality, diaspora, and transcultural identity-and thereby transforms the ways in which human existence is conceived. Clean, like new.
