Philosophers on art from Kant to the postmodernists : a critical reader

642 Pages·2010·2.56 MB·English

by  Kul-Want

Philosophers on Art
from Kant
to the Postmodernists
Philosopherson Art Edited by
from Kant Christopher Kul-Want
to the Postmodernists
A Critical Reader
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2010 Columbia University Press All rights reserved
E-ISBN 978-0-231-52625-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Philosophers on art from Kant to the
postmodernists: a critical reader / edited by Christopher Kul-Want.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-52625-8 (cloth: alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-14095-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1.
Aesthetics. 2. Art—Philosophy. 3. Philosophy, Modern. I. Want, Christopher.
BH39.P47175 2010
701—dc22
2009042784
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
nor Columbia University Press is responsible for Web sites that may have expired or changed
since the book was prepared.
For Catherine
and Enna Thea
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Art and Philosophy
1. Critique of Judgment Immanuel Kant
Georg Wilhelm
2. Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics
Friedrich Hegel
3. How the “True World” Finally Friedrich
Nietzsche Became a Fable: The History of an Friedrich
Error Nietzsche
The Will to Power as Art
4. Beyond the Pleasure Principle Leonardo da
Sigmund Freud
Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood
5. The Lugubrious Game Georges Bataille
6. A Small History of Photography Walter Benjamin
7. Nietz sche’s Overturning of Platonism Martin
The Origin of the Work of Art Heidegger
8. The Mirror Stage as Formative of the
Function of the / Of the Gaze as Object Petit Jacques Lacan
a
9. Las Meninas Michel Foucault
10. Society Theodor Adorno
11. The Work of Art and Fantasy Sarah Kofman
12. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography Roland Barthes
13. Giotto’s Joy Holbein’s Dead Christ Julia Kristeva
14. Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles Jacques Derrida
15. Hysteria Gilles Deleuze
16. Answering the Question: What Is Jean-François
Postmodernism? Lyotard
17. Privation Is Like a Face Giorgio
Agamben
18. The Vestige of Art Jean-Luc Nancy
19. Art and Philosophy Alain Badiou
Jacques
20. The Janus-Face of Politicized Art
Rancière
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
This book is for those who want to know what philosophers have said
about art and how their ideas relate historically and conceptually. At the
book’s core is the ongoing challenge that Immanuel Kant has
bequeathed not just to philosophy but also to thinking and theoretical
writing in his declaration that art is not an object of knowledge. For those
European philosophers writing in the wake of Kant’s legacy, this thesis
has entailed a completely new orientation toward the nature of aesthetic
experience, since this may affect not just approaches to art but also the
conception of subjectivity itself.
Exploring this legacy this book brings together a compilation of the
seminal texts on aesthetics and art by Continental philosophers from the
past two and half centuries whose thought has been challenged yet
shaped by art’s incommensurability with recognized orders of knowledge.
The contents and organization of the book draw a great deal upon my
experience of teaching postgraduate students at Byam Shaw School of
Art at Central St. Martins’ College of Art and Design, University of the
Arts, London. I am very grateful to my colleague Clive Hodgson for
highlighting the keen desire that art students possess to engage with
philosophy when we established the master’s course at Byam Shaw
School of Art ten years ago. This book owes much to the enthusiasm of
my students to the subject of philosophers on art that forms the nucleus
of the masters seminar program at Byam Shaw. I believe this strong
response has arisen in part from the fact that while philosophy has its
own forms and expression, nevertheless, it has deeply shared concerns
and interests for those who make art. Among other things, these revolve
around issues of resolution and completion with regard to the work of art
and the possibility of transformation in the face of doubt, and even failure.
Bringing this book to fruition has entailed extensive correspondence
with publishers’ copyright departments, and I am very grateful for their
assistance in securing copyright for the book’s texts. Jane Gibb and
Professor Martin Woolley of the research department at Central St.
Martins’ have also been extremely helpful in securing several grants from
the college to help pay for copyright purchases. I very much appreciate
the support of the principal of my college, Alister Warman, who granted
me a term’s sabbatical leave to research this book. I would like to thank
my editors, Wendy Lochner and Christine Mortlock at Columbia
University Press, for their advice in the writing and organization of this
book. In addition, I thank Simão Costa and Gregory McNamee for their
very able assistance in editing and formatting the manuscript. My
particular thanks are to my partner Catherine for her support throughout
the realization of this project.
Texts in the following chapters are taken from these sources, listed by the
author’s last name: Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, edited by
Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann, copyright 1997 by the University of
Minnesota; Giorgio Agamben, The Man Without Content, copyright ©
1999 by the board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University; Alain
Badiou, Art and Philosophy from Handbook of Inaesthetics, copyright ©
2005 by the board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University for the
English translation, 1998 Editions du Seuil; Roland Barthes, Camera
Lucida: Reflections on Photography, translated by Richard Howard,
translation copyright © 1981 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., reprinted by
permission of Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Georges
Bataille, Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927–1939, translated by
Allan Stoekl, with Carl R. Lovitt and Donald M. Leslie Jr., copyright 1985
by the University of Minnesota; Walter Benjamin, One-Way Street and
Other Writings, copyright granted by permission of Verso; Gilles Deleuze,
Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, copyright 2002 Les Edition du
Seuil, English translation copyright Continuum International Publishing
Group Ltd.; Jacques Derrida, Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles, copyright
granted by permission of University of Chicago Press; Michel Foucault,
The Order of Things, Copyright © 1970 by Random House, Inc., New
York, copyright © 1966 by Editions Gallimard, reprinted by permission of
Georges Borchardt Inc. for Editions Gallimard; Sigmund Freud, Beyond
the Plea sure Principle, translated by James Strachey, copyright 1961 by
James Strachey, used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation;
Sigmund Freud, Leonardo Da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood,
translated by Alan Tyson, copyright 1957 by The Institute of Psycho-
Analysis, used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., and
Taylor & Francis Books UK; Martin Heidegger, Basic Writings, revised