Merleau-Ponty at the Gallery

Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological ontology engages deeply with visual art, and this aspect of his work remains significant not only to philosophers, but also to artists, art theorists, and critics. Until recently, scholarly attention has been focused on the artists he himself was inspired by and wrote about, chiefly Cézanne, Klee, Matisse, and Rodin.Merleau-Ponty at the Gallery expands and shifts the focus to address a range of artists (Giorgio Morandi, Kiki Smith, Cy Twombly, Joan Mitchell, and Ellsworth Kelly) whose work came to prominence in the second half of the twentieth century and thus primarily after the philosopher's death. Véronique M. Fóti does not confine her analyses to Merleau-Ponty's texts (which now importantly include his late lecture courses), but also engages directly with the art. Of particular concern to her is the art's ethical bearing, especially as related to animal and vegetal life. The book's concluding chapter addresses the still-widespread rejection of beauty as an aesthetic value.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Plethora of Issues

1. Transcending Profane Vision: The Art of Giorgio Morandi

2. At Vision's Crossroads: Body, Animality, and Cosmos in the Art of Kiki Smith

3. Image and Writ in Cy Twombly's Visual Poetics

4. Resonances of Silence and the Dimension of Color: The Art of Joan Mitchell

5. Plant Drawing, Abstraction, and the Philosophy of Nature: The Art of Ellsworth Kelly

6. Strong Beauty and Structures of Exclusion

Conclusion More Ethereal Bodies

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index of Topics
Index of Persons