Meanings of Abstract Art

Paul Crowther is Chair of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, GalwayIsabel Wünsche is Professor of Art and Art History at Jacobs University, Bremen

• Selected Contents: 1. Life into Art: Nature Philosophy, the Life Sciences, and Abstract Art Isabel Wünsche 2. Mondrian’s First Diamond Composition: Spatial Totality and the Plane of the Starry Sky Marek Wieczorek 3. Man, Space and the Zero of Form: Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism and the Natural World Christina Lodder 4. The Role of Mathematical Structure, Natural Form and Pattern in the Art Theory of Wassily Kandinsky: The Quest for Order and Unity Christopher Short 5. "We want to produce like a plant that produces a fruit": Hans Arp and the "Nature Principle" Astrid von Asten 6. Natural Forces and Phenomena as Inspiration and Meaning in Early American Abstraction Herbert R. Hartel, Jr. 7. Jackson Pollock: The Sin of Images Elizabeth Langhorne 8. Clyfford Still’s Regionalist Shamanism Stephen Polcari 9. "Man is Present": Barnett Newman’s Search for the Experience of the Self Eva Ehninger 10. Nature, Entropy, and Robert Smithson’s Utopian Vision of a Culture of Decay John G. Hatch 11. Embodied Nature: Isamu Noguchi’s Intetra Fountain Dominika Glogowski 12. The Arte Povera Experience: Nature Re-Presented Laura Petican 13. Nature’s Hand: Writing Abstraction in the Work of Henri Michaux Birgit Mersmann 14. Abstract Art and Techno-Nature: The Postmodern Dimension Paul Crowther 15. Art, Beauty, and the Sacred: Four Ways to Abstraction Karsten Harries 16. The Complexities of "Abstracting" from Nature Andrew Inkpin 17.Meaning in Abstract Art: From Ur-Nature to the Transperceptual Paul Crowther