Art as Performance

"David Davies’s Art as Performance is itself quite a performance. While agreeing with aesthetic contextualism’s rejection of empiricism in aesthetics, it presents a sophisticated and ingenious critique of, and alternative to, even the most enlightened contextualism about the nature, ontology, and value of art, holding that artworks are, all of them, performances by artists, rather than objects made by artists. Davies’s arguments will require, and will richly reward, the most careful attention from his fellow aestheticians." Jerrold Levinson, University of Maryland

"David Davies brings philosophical rigor and fine-grained analytical reasoning to live and pressing debates about the fundamental nature of art. He offers a striking and original thesis as well as an illuminating presentation of the issues. A compelling performance!"

Peter Lamarque, University of York<!--end-->