Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

How do we appreciate a work of art? Why do we like some artworks but not others? Is there no accounting for taste? Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to explore connections between art, mind, and brain, Shimamura considers how we experience art. In a thoughtful and entertaining manner, the book explores how the brain interprets art by engaging our sensations, thoughts, and emotions. It describes interesting findings from psychological and brain sciences as a way to understand our aesthetic response to art.

Beauty, disgust, surprise, anger, sadness, horror, and a myriad of other emotions can occur as we experience art. Some artworks may generate such feelings rather quickly, while others depend on thought and knowledge. Our response to art depends largely on what we know--from everyday knowledge about the world, from our cultural backgrounds, and from personal experience. Filled with artworks from many traditions and time points, "Experiencing Art" offers insightful ways of broadening one's approach and appreciation of art.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. ix)
• Acknowledgments (p. xiii)
• 1 Overture (p. 1)
• Act I The Art of Seeing
• 2 The Eye as Canvas, the Brain as Beholder (p. 31)
• 3 The Illusion of Form (p. 53)
• 4 Making a Scene (p. 73)
• Act II The Art of Knowing
• 5 How Do You Know? (p. 101)
• 6 Remembrance of Past Things (p. 131)
• 7 You Are Cultured (p. 155)
• Act III The Art of Feeling
• 8 Arousing Emotions (p. 183)
• 9 Body Language (p. 211)
• 10 I Know How You Feel (p. 233)
• 11 Coda (p. 255)
• Index (p. 269)