The Aphorisms of Irsee is a collection of definitive statements on the nature of art by the artist Clive Head and the writer Michael Paraskos. The aphorisms were formulated whilst Head and Paraskos were teaching at a summer art camp in Irsee, southern Germany. Sometimes controversial, often funny, the aphorisms are designed to challenge our understanding of art by defining its essential characteristics. Head and Paraskos do this not only in terms of the question "what is art?" but the equally important question, "what are the conditions in which art can appear?" With a new introduction for the third edition by Michael Paraskos, the Aphorisms of Irsee are radical, challenging and thought provoking, and a joy to read. They set out a new agenda for art in the twenty-first century.

Clive Head is one of the leading British painters of his generation. His remarkable images of urban streets draw on a wide range of traditions, Poussin, Titian and Canaletto, through to American realism, and even elements of Pop. But at their heart his paintings are attempts to answer the simple question: how do I resolve the space in the painting so that it is credible? In this book, based on a talk delivered to art students at the University of Northampton, Head talks with a straightforward frankness about how he makes his paintings and the philosophy that underpins them. He discusses the experience of exhibiting at London's National Gallery, and considers what he believes to be the key issues facing painters in the early twenty-first century. Part six of the New Aesthetics.