Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carroll [Hardcover]

Boldly developing the central traditions of American modernist abstraction, Lawrence Carroll's paintings engage with a fundamental issue of aesthetic theory, the nature of the medium of painting, in highly original, frequently extraordinarily successful ways.Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carrollexplains how he understands the medium of painting; shows what his art says about the identity of painting as an art; discusses the place of his paintings in the development of abstraction; and, finally, offers an interpretation of his art. The first monograph devoted to him, this philosophical commentary employs the resources of analytic aesthetics. Art historians trace the development of art, explaining how what came earlier yields to what comes later. Taking for granted that the artifacts they describe are artworks, art historians place them within the history of art. Philosophical art writers define art, explain why it has a history and identify its meaning. Pursuing that goal,Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carrollroams freely across art history, focused at some points on the story of old master painting and sometimes on the history of modernism, but looking also to contemporary art, in order to provide the fullest possible philosophical perspective on Carroll's work.

Acknowledgments
Prologue

1. What is a work of art?
2. What is a painting
3. The Art World
4. Lawrence Carroll Enters the Art World

Philosophical Interlude: On Aesthetic Theory

5. Why Painting's History Matters
6. An Art History Made for and by Artists
7. Interpreting Carroll's Artworks
8. Why Lawrence Carroll's Paintings Matter

Notes
Bibliography
Lawrence Carroll: Selected Exhibitions
Lawrence Carroll: Selected Collections
Index

David Carrierhas taught Philosophy at Pittsburgh University, USA and Art History at Cleveland, USA. A former Getty Scholar, Clark Fellow, and Senior Fellow at the National lC{