The Phenomenology of Painting

The Phenomenology of Painting examines the practice of painting - how a painter works with materials, the elements of space, form and colour - and viewer response to a work of art. Nigel Wentworth seeks to answer some of the central questions of the philosophy of art, such as: To what extent can a painting and its meaning be understood to result from the artist’s intentions? In what way can the painting be understood as an expressive object? What does it mean for a painting to be a representation of something? And what is the nature of aesthetic quality in painting? In offering responses to these questions, Wentworth offers a new theory on aesthetic quality.

• Written by a practising painter • Radically new theory on aesthetic quality • In-depth discussion of many different paintings makes book accessible to broad audience

Part I. The Perspective of the Painter: Introduction: The problem of painting; 1. The materials of painting and the painter’s use of them; 2. The plastic elements; 3. The figurative elements; 4. The notion of ‘working’: or what is it for a painting to ‘work’; 5. Learning to paint and the activity of painting again; Part II. The Perspective of the Viewer: 6. On the being of the painting and the viewer’s relationship to it; 7. Looking at paintings.