INDEX
Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
Italic page numbers refer to figures in the text.
 
abstract art
differing responses to abstract and figurative art, 58, 141, 178–183
as an event rather than a picture, 11
greater demands on the viewer’s imagination, 20, 58, 122, 179–180, 182–183
origins of, 4–5, 13, 61–76
pleasure in viewing, 115, 148, 180
and previous life experience, 23, 141 (see also associations, learned)
processing and perception of abstract images, 109–122, 178–185 (see also perception)
and processing of color, 39
reasons for success, 177–185
reliance on top-down processing, 22, 23, 58, 114–115, 122, 178–181
and spirituality, 6, 10, 84–85, 185
uncluttered nature of, 177–178
See also Abstract Expressionism; action painting; color, in art; color-field painting; figurative art; light, in art; line, in art; New York School; reductionism; specific artists
Abstract Expressionism, 4–5, 9, 87, 141, 168, 193n2. See also action painting; color-field painting; New York School; specific artists
action painting (gestural painting), 87, 99–100, 103–108, 141
Adelson, Edward, 22
Afrum 1 (White) (Turrell), 160, 161
aggression, 93–98
Albright, Thomas, 110–113, 116, 179
Alpha Tau (Louis), 137
ambiguity in perception, 18, 20, 21, 110–112, 114, 117, 118, 148, 153
and dress color controversy, 150–154, 152
and responses to art, 116–122
amygdala, 38, 38, 47, 96, 147
Anderson, David, 96
Anna Wintour (Katz), 167
Aplysia (sea snail), 48–51, 48–55, 148
art criticism, 10–14. See also Greenberg, Clement; Rosenberg, Harold; Schapiro, Meyer
art, responses to. See perception
art–science connection, 3–7, 187–189. See also brain; perception; reductionism; vision
associations, learned, 22, 45, 50, 52–54, 65, 110–122, 113, 141
attention, 22–23, 29, 35
Aubry, Eugene, 128
Avery, Oswald, 42
Axel, Richard, 147
Barnstone, Howard, 128
Barr, Alfred, 193n2
Baudelaire, Charles, 71
Bazille, Frédéric, 67
“beholder’s share,” 17–20, 25–39, 109, 115, 178–185. See also associations, learned; Gombrich, Ernst; Kris, Ernst; perception; Riegl, Alois
Benton, Thomas Hart, 101
Berenson, Bernard, 100–101
Berggruen, Olivier, 48
Berkeley, George, 21, 44
Bodamer, Joachim, 30, 32
bottom-up processing, 21–22, 25–26, 29, 33, 109, 114
brain, 3–4, 6–7, 17–39, 187–189
and aggression and sexuality, 96, 97
Aplysia studies, 48–51, 48–55, 148
brain damage, 30, 143
and central nervous system, 35–37
and color processing, 143–154, 147
cortical map, 55, 56
default network, 183–185
and learning and memory, 41–58, 111–114, 113
modification of the functional architecture, 55–57
monkey studies, 31, 32, 34, 55, 112, 116
and pattern recognition, 107–108, 144
preconscious mental processes, 184–185
processing and perception of abstract images, 109–122, 178–185 (see also perception)
and reductionism, 6, 41–43
response to lines, 80–83
separate processing of color and form, 143, 146
what and where pathways, 26–29, 27, 38
See also bottom-up processing; emotion; perception; top-down processing; vision; specific brain regions, such as inferior temporal cortex
Brando, Marlon, 168
Braques, Georges, 73, 77, 128, 143
brightness, 111, 149
Broadway Boogie Woogie (Mondrian), 83, 85, 91
Brockman, John, 194n2
Buckner, R. L., 184
Calais Pier (Turner), 62, 63, 64
Carroll, D. C., 184
central nervous system, 35–37, 43
cerebellum, 46
cerebral cortex, 26–30
Cézanne, Paul, 13, 67–68, 73, 77, 83
Churchland, Patricia, 35
classical conditioning, 45, 52–54
Close, Chuck, 14, 163, 164, 171–174, 172–174
Coates, Robert, 193n2
color
in art (see color, in art)
and the brain, 143–154, 147
and brightness, 149
and dress color controversy, 150–154, 152
and emotion, 5, 57, 144, 146–154
as property of the brain rather than the outside world, 150, 154
color, in art, 5, 57, 61, 123–141
liberation of color in abstract art, 5, 38–39, 109, 123–141, 143
Louis and, 132–141
Matisse and, 143
Mondrian and, 77, 79, 83
Rothko and, 123–131
and technological breakthroughs of the 19th century, 146
color-field painting, 12–13, 87–88, 123–141, 178. See also Frankenthaler, Helen; Louis, Morris; Martin, Agnes; Newman, Barnett; Noland, Kenneth; Rothko, Mark
Composition No. II Line and Color (Mondrian), 81
Composition No. III with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (Mondrian), 84
Composition #16 (Pollock), 105
cones, 26–27, 144, 151
construal-level theory, 185
cortical map, 56
cortical representation, 56
Couple Kissing (Rothko), 124, 126
Courbet, Gustave, 63
Crick, Francis, 42, 187
critical periods, 55, 56
Cubism, 13, 73, 77, 79, 91, 122, 143, 182, 183
da Vinci, Leonardo, 107, 179, 188
Danto, Arthur, 98, 159
Darwin, Charles, 30–32
de Kooning, Willem, 5, 58, 74, 88–90, 88–101, 92–93, 99–100, 116–119, 119, 188
and action painting, 87, 99–100
art critics and, 11, 12, 13, 96, 98
background of, 88
brain’s response to works, 116–119
influence on other artists, 165
and New York School, 9, 14, 87
and reduction of figuration, 88–101, 116–119, 163
and spirituality, 10
and texture, 37
de Menil, John and Dominique, 128, 130
default network, 183–185
Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (Monet), 66, 67
Delbrück, Max, 42
Delta (Louis), 138
Descartes, René, 44, 115
The Diagonal of May 25, 1963 (Flavin), 155, 157
dopaminergic modulatory system, 38, 38
Double Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg (Katz), 167
dress, the (color controversy), 150–154, 152
Duchamp, Marcel, 10, 156
Einstein, Albert, 63–64
Einstein, Carl, 183
Elbert, Thomas, 55
electromagnetic spectrum, 145
emotion, 57–58, 178
aggression and sexuality, 93–98
and the beholder’s gaze, 18, 180
and color, 5, 57, 144, 146–154
and color-field painting, 123, 141
erasing emotion through serialization, 171
and face processing, 32–33, 33, 35, 57, 109
happiness, 123
Rothko and, 123, 130
and vision, 37–39
Warhol and, 171
See also amygdala; hypothalamus
Ernst, Max, 10
Excavation (de Kooning), 90–91, 92, 96, 117–119, 120
The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (Darwin), 30–31
face blindness (prosopagnosia), 30, 172–173
face cells, 32, 33
face patches, 31, 32–35, 112, 146, 147
face processing, 28, 29–35, 57, 109, 112
face processing region, 31
powerful responses to exaggerated features, 32–33, 33, 35, 109
social significance of faces, 30–31
Federal Art Project, 14, 132
figurative art, 5, 61, 109, 143, 163–174
Close and, 171–174
de Kooning and, 88–101, 116–119, 163
differing responses to abstract and figurative art, 58, 141, 178–183
Kandinsky and, 71–73
Katz and, 163–168
Mondrian and, 77–85
Monet and, 65–70
Neel and, 163
and perception, 17–20
Pollock and, 101–108, 119–122
Porter and, 163
reliance on bottom-up processing, 22, 109, 114
Rothko and, 126, 130
Schoenberg and, 71, 73–74
Turner and, 61–65
Warhol and, 168–171
Flam, Jack, 179
Flavin, Dan, 155–158, 156–158, 179
form, in art. See figurative art
fovea, 27
Frankenthaler, Helen, 130, 134
Freiwald, Winrich, 32, 34–35
Freud, Sigmund, 107
Fried, Elaine, 116
Frith, Chris, 20–21, 23
frontal lobe, 114, 184
ganglia, 49
ganzfeld effect, 160
Gauillaumin, Armand, 68
Gaze (Schoenberg), 75
Gestalt of the face, 34
Gestalt rules of organization, 20
gestural painting. See action painting
Gilbert, Charles, 110, 111
gill withdrawal reflex, 50, 51, 54
Giotto, 63, 179
Going West (Pollock), 103, 119, 121
Gombrich, Ernst, 17–21, 19, 30, 45, 63, 109
Green by Gold (Louis), 135
Greenberg, Clement, 10, 12, 12–13, 87, 96, 98, 106, 134
Gross, Charles, 32
Guggenheim, Peggy, 10
Guggenheim Museum, 10
Hazlitt, William, 63
Heifetz, Jascha, 55
Helmholtz, Hermann von, 21, 23
heredity, 41–42
hippocampus, 28, 46–47, 57, 112, 147
homunculus, 56
Hopper, Edward, 168
Hubel, David, 80–82, 143, 146
Hume, David, 44, 179
hypothalamus, 38, 38, 96, 97
icon V (Coran’s Broadway Flesh) (Flavin), 156, 157
Impression, Soleil Levant (Monet), 68, 68–69
Impressionism, 65–70, 73, 146
inferior medial temporal lobe, 30
inferior temporal cortex, 28, 30, 31, 57, 112, 113, 113, 116, 146, 147
inverse optics problem, 20–23, 109
Ishai, Alumit, 114, 116
Jackie II (Warhol), 170
Jacob, François, 42
James, William, 111, 115
Joan (Walker 44) (Katz), 166
Johns, Jasper, 14, 164, 168
Judith (Klimt), 58, 94, 95
Kahneman, D., 107
Kandinsky, Wassily, 71, 72, 137, 193n2
Kant, Immanuel, 44, 51
Kaplan, Abraham, 183
Karmel, Pepe, 91
Katz, Ada, 165
Katz, Alex, 14, 163–168, 164, 166–167
Kelly, Ellsworth, 83
Kennedy, Jacqueline, 168, 170, 170
Klimt, Gustav, 58, 94–96, 95
Kokoschka, Oskar, 109
Koons, Jeff, 156
Kris, Ernst, 17–20, 19, 30, 45, 109, 110, 183, 184
Landscape (Louis), 133
landscapes, 61–65
lateral geniculate nucleus, 27, 27, 38
lateral occipital cortex, 37, 38
learning, 4, 43–58
Aplysia studies, 48–51, 48–55, 148
associative learning, 45, 50, 52–54 (see also associations, learned; classical conditioning)
classical conditioning as form of associative learning, 52–54
and culture, 43–44
sensitization as form of nonassociative learning, 52
and strengthening of connections among neurons, 52–53, 57, 111–112
and top-down processing, 29, 54, 57, 110–115
Léger, Fernand, 73
Leibniz, Gottfried, 44
Leslie, Alfred, 163
Lichtenstein, Roy, 164, 168
light, in art, 5, 61, 109, 155–161
Flavin and, 155–158
Rothko and, 128
Turrell and, 159–161
light, and vision, 26, 111, 144–154, 146, 149, 152
and dress color controversy, 150–154, 152
line, in art, 5, 38–39, 61, 83–85, 109
brain’s response to, 80–83
Mondrian and, 77, 79–85
Lipsey, Roger, 10, 135–136
Livingstone, Margaret, 32, 143, 146
Locke, John, 44, 52
long-term memory storage, 51, 52–54, 112
Louis, Morris, 5, 132–133, 132–141, 135–140, 182
art critics and, 12, 134
background of, 132
as color-field painter, 87, 123, 130, 134–141
and New York School, 9, 14
premature death, 138
and spirituality, 10
Veils, Unfurled, and Stripes series, 134–140, 135–140
luminance, 35, 128, 151
Luria, Salvador, 42
Maggie (Close), 173
Magritte, René, 188
makeup, and women’s faces, 35
Manet, Édouard, 66, 92
Marilyn Monroe Pink Fluorescent (Warhol), 169
Martin, Agnes, 130
Matisse, Henri, 7, 48, 134
medial occipital cortex, 37
medial prefrontal cortex, 184
medial temporal cortex, 46, 112–114, 116, 148, 183
memory, 4, 5, 43–54, 113
Aplysia studies, 48–55
and culture, 43–44
formation of short- and long-term memory, 51, 52–54, 54, 112
implicit and explicit memory, 46–47
location and storage of, 46–51
theories of, 47
and top-down processing, 29, 110–115
Merzenich, Michael, 55
Milner, Brenda, 46
mind, 6–7, 44–57, 184, 188. See also brain; emotion; learning; memory; perception
Miró, Joan, 102
Mondrian, Piet, 5, 10, 77–85, 78–81, 84–85, 87, 91, 178–179, 182
Monet, Claude, 13, 65–70, 66–68, 70, 163
monkeys, 31, 32, 34, 55, 112, 116
Monod, Jacques, 42
Monroe, Marilyn, 168, 169, 171
Monument for V. Tatlin (Flavin), 156, 158
Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 41
Munch, Edvard, 168
Murnau with Church I (Kandinsky), 71, 72
Museum of Modern Art, 10
music, musicians, 55, 56, 71
Neel, Alice, 14, 163
neural circuit, 51
New Deal, 14
New York School, 4–5, 9–14, 87–108, 163
emergence of, 9–14
influence of, 14, 77, 168 (see also specific artists)
and reductionism, 5, 9, 177 (see also specific artists)
and scholars and art critics, 10–14, 96, 98
and Washington Color School, 134
See also Abstract Expressionism; de Kooning, Willem; Louis, Morris; Pollock, Jackson; Rothko, Mark
Newman, Barnett, 9, 11, 83, 87, 141
No. 1 of 1948 (Rothko), 124, 126, 127
No. 7 (Rothko), 131
Noland, Kenneth, 12, 130, 134
nucleus accumbens, 148
Number 32 (Pollock), 106, 120, 121
#36 Black Stripe (Rothko), 129, 150
occipital lobe, 26, 27, 37, 38. See also primary visual cortex
Ohayon, S., 34, 35
Olympia (Manet), 92
operant conditioning, 45
optic nerve, 27, 38
orbitofrontal cortex, 148
Our Lady Full of Grace of the Plateau d’Assy Chapel, 128
pareidolia, 107–108
parietal lobe, 114
Parsons, Betty, 10, 108
Parting of Waters (Louis), 139
Pauling, Linus, 187
Pavlov, Ivan, 45
perception, 5, 6, 17–23, 57–58, 100–101, 151
and ambiguity, 18, 20, 21, 110–112, 114, 116–122, 117–118, 148, 150–154, 152–153
the beholder’s share, 17–20, 25–39, 109, 115, 178–185
and bottom-up processing, 21–22, 25–26, 109, 114
and color, 143–154
default network, 183–185
differing responses to abstract and figurative art, 58, 141, 178–183
distinction between sensation and perception, 111, 114
and dress color controversy, 150–154, 152
and emotion (see emotion)
face processing, 28, 29–35, 57, 109, 112
and figurative art, 17–20, 178–179
interaction of vision and touch, 37–39, 100–101
inverse optics problem, 20–23, 109
and learning and memory, 45, 50, 57
processing and perception of abstract images, 109–122, 178–185
response to lines, 80–83
responses to art depending on prior associations, 22, 23, 50, 57, 110–115
and top-down processing, 21–22, 109–115, 178–181 (see also top-down processing)
See also vision
peripheral nervous system, 36
photography, 63
photorealism, 172–174
Picasso, Pablo, 77, 101, 106, 143
Pink Angels (de Kooning), 90, 91
Pissarro, Camille, 13, 67
Pointillism, 23
Pollock, Jackson, 5, 101–108, 102–106, 121, 178, 182, 188
and action painting, 87, 103–108
art critics and, 11–12, 103–104, 106, 108
background of, 101
and the deconstruction of easel painting, 101–108
influence on other artists, 134, 164–165
and New York School, 9, 14, 87, 168
and pattern recognition, 107–108
and reductionism, 102–107
and spirituality, 10
and texture, 37
transition from figuration to abstraction, 101–102, 119–122
Pop Art, 14, 164, 165, 168–171
Porter, Fairfield, 163
portraiture
Close and, 171–174
and face processing, 28, 29, 31, 32
Katz and, 165–167
and reductionism, 163–174
Warhol and, 168–171
posterior cingulate cortex, 183
prefrontal cortex, 114, 184
primary visual cortex, 27, 27, 37, 38, 80–83, 146
Princenthal, Nancy, 185
prosopagnosia. See face blindness
psychology, and perception, 17–18. See also emotion; learning; memory; perception
Purves, Dale, 22, 154
Raichle, Marcus, 183
Ramachandran, V. S., 116
Ramón y Cajal, Santiago, 47
Rauschenberg, Robert, 165, 167, 168
readymades, 156
Red Gaze (Schoenberg), 74, 75
Red Jackie (Warhol), 170
reductionism
in art, 5–7, 84–85, 177–184 (see also New York School; specific artists)
defined, 5
and emergence of abstract art, 61–76
and figurative art, 163–174
and heredity, 41–42
and learning and memory, 45–55
and perception, 5 (see also perception)
in science, 6–7, 15–58 (see also brain)
Reinhardt, Ad, 83
Rembrandt, self-portrait of, 31, 32
Renaissance art, 63, 178
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste, 67
retina, 26–27, 27, 144
Riegl, Alois, 17–18, 18, 45
Riener, Cedar, 151
Rivera, Diego, 102
rods, 26–27, 144
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 14
Rosenberg, Harold, 10–13, 11, 98, 103, 108
Rosenblum, Robert, 87
Rothko, Mark, 5, 123–131, 124–127, 129, 131, 150, 178, 179, 182
art critics and, 12
background of, 123–124
as color-field painter, 87, 123–131
influence on other artists, 130, 134
and New York School, 9, 14, 87
and reductionism, 124–127
Rothko Chapel, 128–130
and spirituality, 10
Rothko Chapel, 128–130
Rubin, Nava, 184
Sacks, Oliver, 30
Saf (Louis), 136
Salzman, Daniel, 147
Sandback, Fred, 83, 180, 181, 182
Sarah (Katz), 166
Schapiro, Meyer, 10–11, 13, 13, 96
Schiele, Egon, 109
Schjeldahl, Peter, 96
Schoenberg, Arnold, 35, 71–76, 74–76, 188
School of Paris, 12
Schrödinger, Erwin, 41–42
science, 5–7, 187–189
art–science connection, 3–7, 187–189
and reductionism, 5, 15–58
See also brain; perception; vision
seascapes, 61–65
Seated Woman (de Kooning), 89, 116–117, 119, 119
Sejnowski, Terrence, 35
serotonin, 51
Seurat, Georges, 23
sexuality, 93–98
Shirley (Close), 174
short-term memory storage, 51, 52–54, 54
Sisley, Alfred, 13, 67, 106
Sketch for Composition V (Kandinsky), 71, 72, 73
Skinner, B. F., 45
Smith, Roberta, 83
The Snail (Matisse), 48
Snow, C. P., 3, 4, 187, 189, 193nn1,2
Snowstorm (Turner), 62–63, 65
Solso, Robert, 22
Soutine, Chaim, 98
spectrum, visible, 26–27, 145. See also light, and vision
Spies, W., 98
spirituality, 6, 10, 84–85, 185
Starr, Gabriella, 184
Stevens, Mark, 90–91
striatum, 46
Stripes series (Louis), 137–138, 139, 140
structural organization of the nervous system, 35, 36
superior parietal cortex, 114
Surrealism, 87, 91, 188
Swan, Annalyn, 90–91
Tatlin, Vladimir, 158
Taylor, Elizabeth, 168, 171
The Tea Cup (Pollock), 102, 104
temporal lobe, 28, 30, 31, 46, 57, 112–114, 113, 116, 146–148, 183
texture, 37, 98, 100–101, 108
Thinking (Schoenberg), 74, 76
Third Element (Louis), 140
Thorndike, Edward, 45
Tight End (Turrell), 161, 161
Tomkins, Calvin, 159
top-down processing, 21–23, 29–30
and color, 144, 150–154
defined/described, 22–23
and face processing, 33
and hippocampus, 28
and learning and memory, 43–58
and perception of abstract images, 22, 23, 109–115, 178–181
and responses to art, 22, 23, 57–58, 114–115, 122
and suppression of irrelevant information, 23
touch, 37–39, 100–101
Tree (Mondrian), 80
Treisman, Anne, 29
Tsao, Doris, 32, 34–35
Turner, J. M. W., 6, 61–65, 62, 64–65, 69, 115, 163
Turrell, James, 159–161, 159–161, 179
Tversky, A., 107
Two Trees on Mary Street . . . Amen! (de Kooning), 98, 99
Unfurled series (Louis), 136–138, 137–138
Ungerleider, Leslie, 55
Untitled (Rothko), 125
Untitled (Sculptural Study, Seven-part Right-angled Triangular Construction) (Sandback), 181
Untitled (Two Women) (Louis), 133
Untitled X (de Kooning), 98–99, 100
van Gogh, Vincent, 23, 77, 108
Varnedoe, Kirk, 107
Veils series (Louis), 134–136, 135–136
Venus of Hohle Fels, 94, 94
Vessel, Edward, 184
visible spectrum, 26–27, 145. See also light, and vision
vision, 25–39, 152
and attention, 29
and bottom-up processing, 21–22, 25–26, 29, 109
color vision, 144–154, 145, 147, 149
computer models, 34
distinction between sensation and perception, 111, 114
and emotion, 37–39
face processing, 28, 29–35, 57, 109, 112
ganzfeld effect, 160
inverse optics problem, 20–23, 109
and learning and memory, 45
levels of processing, 22, 28–29, 83
mechanics of, 20
and object recognition, 22, 27–30, 148, 149
organization of the visual system, 26–30, 27
and perception of abstract images, 22, 23, 109–115, 178–185
rods and cones, 26–27, 144, 151
and top-down processing, 21–22, 28, 29–30, 109–115, 178–181
and touch, 37–39, 100–101
and what pathway/where pathway, 26–29, 27, 38
See also perception
Warhol, Andy, 14, 156, 164, 168–171, 169–170
Washington Color School, 134
The Water Lily Pond (Monet), 70
Watson, James, 42, 187
what and where pathways, 26–29, 27, 28, 38
Wiesel, Torsten, 80–82
Wilson, E. O., 187
Windmill in the Gein (Mondrian), 77, 78
Wintour, Anna, 165, 167, 168
Woman I (de Kooning), 58, 89–90, 93
Woods Near Oele (Mondrian), 77, 79
Zeki, Semir, 27, 81–82