Issue 24, January 2001
Gerald Cipriani
Pages 279-301
Reflections on the Nature of the Figural in Art
In this essay I develop evelop a critique of different modes understanding what is a moment of meaningful form in art (the figural). I attempt to show that approaches which maintain a separation between form and content, or the subjective and the objective cannot truly do justice to the presentational nature of meaning in art. In particular, I refer to Mikel Dufrenne's conception of expression in his Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience as being paradoxically misleading when it comes to understand the figural in its phenomentality. I ultimately argue for the need to bear in mind that the relationship between presentation and representation, or experience and objectivity ought to be approached in terms of complementary difference.