Uncovering the Body

About the Book

Uncovering the Body provides a new perspective on how to experience and think about art and the artistic process. It uses the bodily experience as the source and mode of engaging and experiencing work. Our older ways of thinking about art imply the dualities of mind and body, reason and feeling. Author Ed Levine includes chapters on the following subject matter to explain his innovative philosophy:

• Bodily thoughts and the intelligent flesh
  
• Art and ornithology: artist as migratory bird
  
• The artistic process
  
• Looking into time

Western culture is marked by dualities of mind and body, and of body and spirit, which have found their way into our thinking and understanding of art and the artistic process. Thinking and experiencing through and by means of the body can dissolve these dichotomies and provide an alternative way of engaging and finding meaning in works of art.

Uncovering the Body provides an alternative to the postmodern interpretation of art. It offers a point of view that moves beyond the limitations that postmodern thinking imposes on our understanding of art and its methods. By reengaging our bodies, we can establish a new relationship between art and ourselves.

About the Author

Ed Levine, an artist whose work includes sculpture installation and photography, is Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts at MIT where he was Director of the Visual Arts Program. He served on the Visual Arts Policy Panel for the NEA. Currently he splits his time between Miami and Vermont, where he has been working on a sculptural landscape and architectural installation for the past thirteen years.