This collection brings together an international team of leading philosophers to address diverse philosophical issues raised by recent works of art. Each essay engages with a specific artwork and explores the connection between the image and the philosophical content and how philosophy can aid interpretation of the artwork.

Introduction: figurative art and figurative philosophy Damien Freeman 1. John Currin and pornography Jesse Prinz [John Currin The Dane] 2. A moment of capture Barry C. Smith [Dexter Dalwood A View From A Window] 3. Uncanny absence and imaginative presence in Dalwood's paintings Edward Winters [Dexter Dalwood Room 100 Chelsea Hotel and Hendrix's Last Basement] 4. At the still point of the turning world: Two Quartets by Tom de Freston Lydia Goehr [Tom de Freston Quartet - Stage One and Quartet - Stage Two] 5. Being ironic with style, Sam Rose [Tom de Freston, Quartet - Stage Four] 6. The radioactive wolf, pieing and the Goddess "Fashion" Raymond Geuss [Adrian Ghenie Dada is Dead and Nickelodeon] [Chantal Joffe The Black Camisole] 7. Confinement, apathy, indifference Hallvard Lillehammer [Paul Noble Heaven] 8. Thinking outside the frame: Plato, Quinn and Artaud on representation and thought M. M. McCabe [Ged Quinn, The Fall] 9. Nature, life and spirit: a Hegelian reading of Quinn's vanitas art Alexis Papazoglou [Ged Quinn, Hegel's Happy End] 10. Of war and madness Noël Carroll [Paula Rego War] 11. Showing us how it is Simon Blackburn [George Shaw This Sporting Life] 12. Paintings, photographs, titles Jerrold Levinson [George Shaw No Returns] 13. The laughter behind the painted smile Sondra Bacharach [Yue Minjun Untitled]. Index