The Language of Art and Artists

This book brings together the research of leading scholars who explore the complex interplay between language and art. Employing a diversity of methods--including systemic functional linguistics, corpus analysis, multimodal analysis, genre analysis, discourse analysis, and cognitive linguistics--this edited collection offers fresh perspectives on the role of textual practices in shaping artistic production, interpretation, and engagement across a range of cultural and institutional contexts. The chapters examine a wide range of written and spoken texts, including artists’ statements, art reviews, painting titles, museum press releases, artists’ websites, guided tours, audio descriptions, and artist talks. This timely volume is relevant for students, teachers, and researchers in language and applied linguistics, discourse analysis and visual arts, as well as those in the areas of art theory and curatorial studies. It will also appeal to academic literacies and ESP (English for Specific Purposes) practitioners supporting visual arts students worldwide.

Darryl Hocking is an Associate Professor at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His primary research areas are discourse, genre, and corpus analysis with a particular focus on the interactional genres and communicative practices in visual art settings and their impact on creative activity. His recent books include The Impact of Everyday Language Change on the Practices of Visual Artists (2022) and Communicating Creativity: The Discursive Facilitation of Creative Activity in Arts (2018).