Introduction: Making Representations

Chapter 1, ‘Introduction: Making Representations’, sets out the main aim of the book, which is to explore the ways in which the arts represent the world. The book identifies image, word, melody and gesture as four primary ‘ingredients’ of artistic representation. It is these four ingredients, singly or in various combinations, which generate the multifarious forms of art in every culture. Artistic representation entails far more than imitation. Abstraction, expression and interpretation are also crucial elements. Through image, word, melody and gesture, the arts reflect upon the world in which we live, and in the process reshape and re-evaluate it.