Explores questions relating to the nature of representation in art. It asks how we recognize likeness in caricatures or portraits, for instance, and presents the conflicting arguments and opinions of an art historian, a psychologist and a philosopher.

A complex and fascinating question is why do humans have such strong emotional reactions and human connections to art? Why do viewers become scared, even haunted for days, by a movie monster they know doesn't exist? Why do humans become enthralled by distorted figures and scenes that aren't realistic? Why do viewers have emotional attachments to comic book characters? The answer lies in that, while humans know art is human made artifice, they view and decipher art using the same often nonconscious methods that they use to view and decipher reality. Looking at how we perceive reality shows us how we perceive art, and looking at how we perceive art helps show us how we perceive reality. Written by the prominent art historian and philosopher Cycleback, this book is a concise introduction to understanding art perception, covering key psychological, cognitive science, physiological and philosophical concepts.

This book looks at a refined selection of drawings by Alberto Giacometti and examines them against the background provided by more than one hundred letters exchanged between Giacometti and his parents, the majority of which have not previously been published. The choice of drawings and the selected correspondence illuminate important aspects of the development of Giacometti's work over five decades of his life. Furthermore, Patrick de Vries examines Alberto Giacometti's friendships with important contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso, Francis Gruber, Balthus, and Tal-Coat, and discloses the artists' views of each other, as well as links and dissimilarities in their work. Discussions with Giacometti's friend, the Japanese philosopher Isaku Yanaihara, reveal interesting insights into the, rarely discussed, subject of Giacometti's fascination with East Asian Art.

Can we trust our senses to tell us the truth? Challenging leading scientific theories that claim that our senses report back objective reality, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman argues that while we should take our perceptions seriously, we should not take them literally. From examining why fashion designers create clothes that give the illusion of a more “attractive” body shape to studying how companies use color to elicit specific emotions in consumers, and even dismantling the very notion that spacetime is objective reality, The Case Against Reality dares us to question everything we thought we knew about the world we see.

Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia for instance letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. 00'Layers of Reality' is both a personal and a semi-scientific research into synesthesia. Anna Püschel, a synesthete herself, experiences colours when looking at images. With this research she questions her conception of reality. Using a large database of images she investigates the origin, consistency and subjectivity of her synesthesia, in an attempt to answer the question: "Am I mad?"

By the end of the 1960s a revolution had taken place in the perception and practice of art in Europe and North America. This book, the first detailed account of developments centered around the conceptual art movement, highlights the main issues underlying visually disparate works dating from the second half of the 1960s to the end of the 1970s. These works questioned the accepted categories of painting and sculpture by embracing a wealth of alternative media and procedures. Traditional two- and three-dimensional representations were supplanted by a variety of linguistic and photographic means, as well as installations that brought into play the importance of presentation and site. Through close examination of individual works and artists, Anne Rorimer demonstrates the pervading desire to redefine the characteristics of what was once accepted as truly visual in order to dispel earlier assumptions and offer other criteria for seeing. Artists whose work is discussed in depth include Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Gilbert & George, Sol LeWitt, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Smithson, Daniel Buren, and Michael Asher. Forerunners of the period such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Piero Manzoni, Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow, and Fluxus are also included. 303 illustrations.

The A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts 1956, National Gallery of Art, Washington