Henri Bergson and Visual Culture: A Philosophy for a New Aesthetic

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What does it mean to see time in the visual arts and how does art reveal the nature of time Paul Atkinson investigates these questions through the work of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, whose theory of time as duration made him one of the most prominent thinkers of the fin de sicle. Although Bergson never enunciated an aesthetic theory and did not explicitly write on the visual arts, his philosophy gestures towards a play of sensual differences that is central to aesthetics. This book rethinks Bergsons philosophy in terms of aesthetics and provides a fascinating and original account of how Bergsonian ideas aid in understanding time and dynamism in the visual arts. From an examination of Bergsons influence on the visual arts to a reconsideration of the relationship between aesthetics and metaphysics, Henri Bergson and Visual Culture explores what it means to reconceptualise the visual arts in terms of duration. Atkinson revisits four key themes in Bergsons work duration; time and the continuous gesture; the ramification of life and durational difference and reveals Bergsonian aesthetics of duration through the application of these themes to a number of 19th and 20th-century artworks. This book introduces readers and art lovers to the work of Bergson and contributes to Bergsonian scholarship, as well as presenting a new of understanding the relationship between art and time.

Reviews

Henri Bergson and Visual Culture is an immensely interesting book. It not only describes what Bergsons philosophy of art might have looked like, but it also shows how philosophy can be reoriented, enriched, and developed through its interaction with artworks. A tremendous achievement. * Leonard Lawlor, Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University, USA *
Bergson represents a movement in thought that calls on us to join in that movement if we are to understand it. Atkinson not only joins Bergsons thought with supreme grace, he also creates a Bergsonian understanding of visual art that is quite remarkable. As adept in the history of art as it is impressive in its philosophical scholarship, this is the best book to appear on Bergson in years. * John Maoilearca, Professor of Film, Kingston University, London, UK *

Author Bio

Paul Atkinson is Lecturer at Monash University, Australia.