Philosophy of art is traditionally concerned with the definition, appreciation and value of art. Through a close examination of art from recent centuries, Art and Phenomenology is one of the first books to explore visual art as a mode of experiencing the world itself, showing how in the words of Merleau-Ponty ‘Painting does not imitate the world, but is a world of its own’.

An outstanding series of chapters by an international group of contributors examine the following questions:



Paul Klee and the body in art
colour and background in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of art
self-consciousness and seventeenth-century painting
Vermeer and Heidegger
philosophy and the painting of Rothko
embodiment in Renaissance art
sculpture, dance and phenomenology.

Art and Phenomenology is essential reading for anyone interested in phenomenology, aesthetics, and visual culture.