This book considers how art actually works, how the various art forms connect with the world of ordinary human experience. A key idea is that art is representation through convention – that artistic conventions, far from inhibiting the work of the artist, are vital to artistic creativity.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Making Representations.- Chapter 2. Framing the Image.- Chapter 3. Sounding the Word.- Chapter 4. Reading the Melody.- Chapter 5. Staging the Gesture.- Chapter 6. Seeing Through Conventions.- Chapter 7. One Art After Another.- Chapter 8. Looking Beyond the Frame.

This book considers how art actually works, how the various art forms connect with the world of ordinary human experience. Many books approach the subject from the top down, through topics such as the nature of beauty, the meaning of art, aesthetic judgement, and so on. The present book examines the subject from the ground up, so to speak, showing how the creation and appreciation of art spring from innate human needs and capacities. What we call ‘the arts’ emerge organically from the habitual activities through which human beings represent the world to themselves and others. Artistic representation, always more than mere imitation, is a reaching for the spirit of a subject, a revealing of the implicit, a refreshing of the overly familiar. A key idea is that art is representation through convention – that artistic conventions, far from inhibiting the work of the artist, are vital to artistic creativity. Peter Moore has taught and published work on a broad range of topics in the Humanities over several decades. He is currently Honorary Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK).

Shows how the arts spring from the basic functions of human perception and communication Explores the specific character of each art form but also the many connections between the arts Encourages readers to think more deeply about their own experiences with the arts