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The Sensorial Line: The Primacy of the Human Figure in World Art The Sensorial Line: The Primacy of the Human Figure in World Art is a speculative essay concerning the human figure, embodied perception, draughtsmanship and the peculiar status of the figurative line within visual art. Comments, questions and critical responses are very welcome at the foot of this post. Beginning with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the idea of the human body as the Sensorium, the essay develops the

The Funny Little Doggy’s Riposte to Richard Dawkins The Funny Little Doggy’s Riposte to Richard Dawkins is a short philosophical allegory and thought experiment concerning consciousness, materialism and the peculiar fact of individual identity. Comments, questions and critical responses are very welcome at the foot of this post. Set around an improbable encounter at Hammersmith Station, the piece imagines a talking little dog confronting a fictionalised Richard Dawkins with a

New Essay: New Age Hero — The Eternal Return of the Hero in Art and Literature I have recently completed a new long-form essay, New Age Hero: The Eternal Return of the Hero in Art and Literature. Beginning with The Epic of Gilgamesh and the heroes of Greece, the essay follows the changing image of the hero through Christianity, the Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Modernism and Postmodernism. It asks why the heroic figure repeatedly returns—even within cul

Jenny Saville National Portrait Gallery London Seen on 21 June 2025 Ed Mirza This a large scale show, and a great success for a living artist. Saville has established herself as one of he foremost figurative painters of our time. With excellent handling of form and paint, and good drawing, these are striking, memorable, and have entered the history books. These may be ead as images which may have a very particular impact on women, as many of the early ones show the female

A speculative philosophical essay exploring animism, semiotics and the hidden continuity between things and their representations — from footprints and symbols to memory, thought and literature.

Painting as Time Warper Light as the Pre-eminent Vehicle of Reality and Information Author: Ed Mirza Genre: Speculative philosophy / Aesthetics / Metaphysical reflection Themes: Painting, light, perception, memory, time, consciousness, animism Archival edition: Zenodo / Philosophy record: PhilPapers The Painted Room as Portal Certain paintings possess an odd immediacy. They do not merely represent a room; they seem, for an instant, to admit the viewer into its atmosphere. ​

What happens when the Forms created by Genius become the Rules by which later art is judged? An essay — and exhortation — on originality, Reflection and the danger of becoming imprisoned by Form.