"David Davies's Art as Performance is itself quite aperformance. While agreeing with aesthetic contextualism'srejection of empiricism in aesthetics, it presents a sophisticatedand ingenious critique of, and alternative to, even the mostenlightened contextualism about the nature, ontology, and value ofart, holding that artworks are, all of them, performances byartists, rather than objects made by artists. Davies'sarguments will require, and will richly reward, the most carefulattention from his fellow aestheticians.„ Jerrold Levinson, University of Maryland “David Davies brings philosophical rigor and fine-grainedanalytical reasoning to live and pressing debates about thefundamental nature of art. He offers a striking and original thesisas well as an illuminating presentation of the issues. A compellingperformance!"
Peter Lamarque, University of York
Art as Performance
von Dave Davies* * Elaborates and defends a broad conceptual framework forthinking about the arts.
* Offers a provocative view about the kinds of things thatartworks are and how they are to be understood.
* Reveals important continuities and discontinuities betweentraditional and modern art.
* Highlights core topics in aesthetics and art theory, includingtraditional theories about the nature of art, aestheticappreciation, artistic intentions, performance, and artisticmeaning.
