Thinking in painting : Gilles Deleuze and the revolution from representation to abstraction
Reading with Gilles Deleuze, this thesis explores art as a production that abandons representation as a formation of identity in favour of an ontology of becoming. I argue that the move to abstraction in painting resonates with the aim of ~thought without image~ because it counters representation with a radical materiality that returns painting to the movement of matter. In order to situate Deleuze's thinking on art within a trajectory of a philosophy of becoming I open the thesis with a chapter on Bergson and Merleau-Ponty. Here I introduce the notion of 'thinking in painting' and argue that, while in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of art painting is a pedagogical investigation of the pre-human, chaotic and invisible 'depth' of a lived visible world, Deleuze takes Bergson's commitment to the possibility of moving beyond the human seriously and reverses the order of perception in order to seize the non-human virtual that eludes actualization. For Deleuze, the task of painting is therefore not to reveal the ontogenesis of the actual and the lived, but to extract the virtual and to embody it as a monument to that event. In abstraction the interest moves from the mechanism of perception to the work of paint, and
Purdom, Judy
B Philosophy (General) ; ND Painting
Thinking in painting : Gilles Deleuze and the revolution from representation to abstraction. Reading with Gilles Deleuze, this thesis explores art as a production that abandons representation as a formation of identity in favour of an ontology of becoming. I argue that the move to abstraction in painting resonates with the aim of ~thought without image~ because it counters representation with a radical materiality that returns painting to the movement of matter. In order to situate Deleuze's thinking on art within a trajectory of a philosophy of becoming I open the thesis with a chapter on Bergson and Merleau-Ponty. Here I introduce the notion of 'thinking in painting' and argue that, while in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of art painting is a pedagogical investigation of the pre-human, chaotic and invisible 'depth' of a lived visible world, Deleuze takes Bergson's commitment to the possibility of moving beyond the human seriously and reverses the order of perception in order to seize the non-human virtual that eludes actualization. For Deleuze, the task of painting is therefore not to reveal the ontogenesis of the actual and the lived, but to extract the virtual and to embody it as a monument to that event. In abstraction the interest moves from the mechanism of perception to the work of paint, and
thinking painting gilles_deleuze revolution representation abstraction reading gilles_deleuze explore art production abandon representation formation identity favour ontology become argue move abstraction paint aim thought without image counter representation radical materiality return paint movement matter order situate deleuze think art within trajectory philosophy become open bergson ponty introduce notion thinking paint argue merleau_ponty phenomenology art paint pedagogical investigation pre human chaotic invisible depth live visible world deleuze take bergson commitment possibility move_beyond human seriously reverse order perception order seize non_human virtual deleuze task paint therefore reveal ontogenesis actual live extract virtual embody monument event abstraction interest move mechanism perception work paint