Framing Consciousness in Art

Book excerpt: Framing Consciousness in Art examines how the conscious mind enacts and processes the frame that both surrounds the work of art yet is also shown as an element inside its space. These `frames-in-frames¿ may be seen in works by Teniers, Velázquez, Vermeer, Degas, Rodin, and Cartier-Bresson and in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Buñuel. The book also deals with framing in a variety of cultural contexts: Indian, Chinese and African, going beyond Euro-American formalist and aesthetic concerns which dominate critical theories of the frame.