A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art

Metaphor, which allows us to talk about things by comparing them to other things, is one of the most ubiquitous and adaptable features of language and thought. It allows us to clarify meaning, yet also evaluate and transform the ways we think, create and act. While we are alert to metaphor in spoken or written texts, it has, within the visual arts, been critically overlooked. Taking into consideration how metaphors are inventively embodied in the formal, technical, and stylistic aspects of visual artworks, Mark Staff Brandl shows how extensively artists rely on creative metaphor within their work. Exploring the work of a broad variety of artists – including Dawoud Bey, Dan Ramirez, Gaëlle Villedary, Raoul Deal, Sonya Clark, Titus Kaphar, Charles Boetschi, and more– he argues that metaphors are the foundation of visual thought, are chiefly determined by bodily and environmental experiences, and are embodied in artistic form. Visual artistic creation is philosophical thought. By