In this reading, an excerpt from Catherine Soussloff’s chapter on “Michel Foucault and the Point of Paint,” Soussloff discusses the work of French philosopher and art historian, Michel Foucault. Foucault is an incredibly important figure because of his contributions to visual studies through his writings on paintings.
I was unaware of Foucault’s work prior to this assigned reading. I agree with many of his beliefs, especially his understanding that painting contributes to the creation and sharing of knowledge. I think that painting is a language in itself and has the unique ability to communicate realities, as well as go beyond the real and discuss the unconscious and imaginary.
Soussloff states that Foucault “sought to understand painting’s significance as historical, that is, as occurring over time” (735). I found this statement intriguing because I have only ever learnt as painting as being linear and having clear historical movements and roots. The idea that there was once a time when this was not an obvious function of art history and practice is one that interests me.
I was also drawn to Merleau-Ponty’s theory that “no valuable painting has ever consisted in simply representing . . . That is why the works of the classical painters have a different meaning and perhaps more meaning than the painters themselves thought” (738). I have always found the concept that historians read into the symbolism of paintings with such focus that sometimes we might be giving meaning to work that perhaps wasn’t intended by the artist. I also agree with the fact that painting is inherently conceptual. While you could perhaps just paint solely for representational purposes, there are still many decisions and thought processes that go into it that it becomes a part of the psyche as well.
I found this reading to be very interesting overall, and I enjoyed reading about different theories within art history and how they came to be.
