Search

One of the dominant themes of Souriau’s research is the problematization of the poetic act, the creative gesture through which man becomes demiurge, founder of being. Through his opposition to the Bergsonian aesthetic of the creative élan, as well as through his critique of dynamical schema theory, Souriau attempted to define the creative act – the poetic act – as an ordered, ascending process which leads to position of a being (the artwork) in its patuity, ie with an objective degree of reality. In doing so, Souriau redefines the ontology of the creation, coming to elaborate an original theory of the virtual and its actualization, which leads towards an enigmatic and superior existential level which he defines as supra-existential.

How can the visual and textual data about an image – the image of a work of art – on recto and verso of a picture be interpreted? An analogical-art-documentary photograph represents a palimpsest to be considered layer by layer. The examples discussed in this article, which refer to both Aby Warburg himself and the first nucleus of the Warburg Institute Photographic Collection, contribute to effectively outline elements of the debate around the question of the photographic reproduction of the work of art as well as of the position of photography in relation to the perception of the work of art.

The question of laterality lies at the core of the image description technique in Diderot’s Salons. This essay aims at examining the role of laterality through a close analysis of Diderot’s commentaries of some artistic works. It is possible to recognize the role of laterality in the beholder’s gaze, in the aesthetic re-creation during the process of reception and, finally, in the inversion of left and right as productive development of the artistic image.

El presente texto se propone analizar los conceptos de aura y técnica en Walter Benjamin, contrastándolos con las posiciones de Martin Heidegger, para pensar la imbricación de la obra de arte con el problema de la historia y la verdad.The following text proposes to analyze the concepts of Walter Benjamin, aura and technique, in contrast to those by Martin Heidegger, in order to think the interweaving of an artwork with the problem of history and truth.

This paper aims to introduce and analyze the concept of “artistic routine”. This notion is derived from the formula “cognitive routine”, which has a wider range of application and is related to the cognitive sciences. It defines the interaction that takes place between the art perceiver and the perceived artwork, i.e. a distinctive cognitive routine, triggered only by specific identifying marks which are usually associated with artworks.

What does Gérard Genette mean by ontology of art ? In order to answer this question, one may distinguish two forms of ontology. The first type answers the question What things do exist and what is their nature ? The second type is about the things’ modes of existence, as distinct from the nature of things. The first part of The Work of Art, with the fundamental distinction it makes between immanence and transcendence, aims to address the questions raised by by the modes of existence of artworks identified as such by the usages and practices of the artworld. Thus, Genette’s ontology is of the second type. However, does Genette succeed in his attempt to eschew the two major question of the first type o ontology—the existence and the nature of artworks ? To what extent may one suggest that these two questions pervade his whole ontology of art ?

This paper deals with two questions. The first: are titles of artworks constitutive of what such works are? The second: are titles essential properties of artworks? The answer is given by the central thesis: the title slot for a work of art is never devoid of aesthetic potential; how it is filled, or that it is not filled, is always aesthetically relevant.

What is it that makes an artwork function and present itself as an artwork distinct from non-art? Such is the question of the artwork’s persuasive evidence. Through a re-reading of the rhetorical literature about ekphrasis — enargeia that grounds it and energeia that motivates it — this paper attempts to describe the artwork in its dynamic dimension, as an occasion to move (phora and transitus). The stress is then put on the energetic movement of the «pro ommaton poiein» which is specific of how a figure functions, but it is then demonstrated that this is the movement of the figure per se, dissociable from classic mimesis and its «cinematographical fantasy». A few examples are then analyzed to show how this global theory may encompass trompe-l’œil as well as plasticity, redaymades or abstract art, thus launching a possible «energetics of art».