Art and Institution: Aesthetics in the Late Works of Merleau-Ponty (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy, 3)

## Art, Phenomenology, Dialectic Phenomenology does not introduce a new system of aesthetics, but rather it comes back to the aesthetic. Phenomenology, that is, allows the work of art's own mode of being to appear, and it does so by tending to it on its own terms and without any previous notions applied to it. Thus the artwork, approached pheomenologically, does not give access to the structures of subjectivity as such. Nor does the work allow us to witness, from the distant vantage of a neutral and uninvested subject, the structures of objectivity as such. The artwork, for Merleau-Ponty, is not per se refl ective of its own origins but rather, as pre-refl ective, allows access to a way of being in which no distinction work of art shows the very region into which a phenomenology must pass in order to gain access to its own possibilities. That is, in disclosing an inhuman nature of the human, the artwork discloses the very ground into which phenomenology must pass in order to accomplish itself as a phenomenology. If Merleau-Ponty understands the relation of phenomenology to art on the basis of this hyper-dialectic, and if art thus exposes the being to which phenomenology must return, then it is no doubt tempting to object that Merleau-Ponty simply subsumes the artwork under a general ontology and that he is in fact unable to let the work appear on its own terms. In this sense, it could be argued, art never conveys anything other than the ontological possibility for phenomenology, and thus it is in a deep sense de-aestheticized. Indeed Merleau-Ponty never seems to interrogate the artwork in its own being or concern himself with the problems that belong solely to it. The work of art, according to him, is always apparently subservient to the inner-logic of a vision that arises from out of a natural being. Merleau-Ponty's reference in "Eye and Mind" to painting as a "secret science" that is "further on," grounding a natural science, apparently corroborates this view. 12 For a secret science is especially important for Merleau-Ponty inasmuch as it founds all the sciences, though it is only phenomenology that remains attentive to this secret foundation. ## The Relation of Art to Institution In a September 1959 Working Note to The Visible and the Invisible, as well as in a passage of "Eye and Mind," Merleau-Ponty recalls Max Ernst's descriptions of the role of the painter: "to rediscover that vision of the origins, which sees itself within us, as poetry rediscovers what articulates itself within us, unbeknownst to us." 31 The painter's Art and Institution examines how for Merleau-Ponty the work of art opens up, without conceptualizing, the event of being. Rajiv Kaushik treats Merleau-Ponty's renderings of the artwork - specifically in his later writings during the period ranging from 1952-1961 - as a path into the being that precedes phenomenology. Replete with references to Merleau-Ponty's reflections on Matisse, Czanne, Proust and others, and featuring Kaushik's own original reflections on various artworks, this book is guided by the notion that art does not iterate the findings of phenomenology so much as it allows phenomenology to finally discover what, as a matter of principle, it the very foundation of experience that is not itself available to thought. Kaushik is thus concerned with the ways in which the work of art restores the principle of institution, prior to the intentional structures of consciousness, so that phenomenology may settle questions concerning ontological difference, the origination of significance, and the relationship between interiority and exteriority. Art and Institution examines how for Merleau-Ponty the work of art opens up, without conceptualizing, the event of being. Rajiv Kaushik treats Merleau-Ponty's renderings of the artwork - specifically in his later writings during the period ranging from 1952-1961 - as a path into the being that precedes phenomenology. Replete with references to Merleau-Ponty's reflections on Matisse, Czanne, Proust and others, and featuring Kaushik's own original reflections on various artworks, this book is guided by the notion that art does not iterate the findings of phenomenology so much as it allows phenomenology to finally discover what, as a matter of principle, it the very foundation of experience that is not itself available to thought. Kaushik is thus concerned with the ways in which the work of art restores the principle of institution, prior to the intentional structures of consciousness, so that phenomenology may settle questions concerning ontological difference, the origination of significance, and the relationship between interiority and exteriority. Art and Institution examines how for Merleau-Ponty the work of art opens up, without conceptualizing, the event of being. Rajiv Kaushik treats Merleau-Ponty's renderings of the artwork - specifically in his later writings during the period ranging from 1952-1961 - as a path into the being that precedes phenomenology. Replete with references to Merleau-Ponty's reflections on Matisse, Cézanne, Proust and others, and featuring Kaushik's own original reflections on various artworks, this book is guided by the notion that art does not iterate the findings of phenomenology so much as it allows phenomenology to finally discover what, as a matter of principle, it seeks: the very foundation of experience that is not itself available to thought. Kaushik is thus concerned with the ways in which the work of art restores the principle of institution, prior to the intentional structures of consciousness, so that phenomenology may settle questions concerning ontological difference, the origination of significance, and the relationship between interiority and exteriority. "Art and Institution examines how for Merleau-Ponty the work of art opens up, without conceptualizing, the event of being. Rajiv Kaushik treats Merleau-Pontys renderings of the artwork specifically in his later writings during the period ranging from 1952-1961 as a path into the being that precedes phenomenology. Replete with references to Merleau-Pontys reflections on Matisse, Czanne, Proust and others, and featuring Kaushiks own original reflections on various artworks, this book is guided by the notion that art does not iterate the findings of phenomenology so much as it allows phenomenology."--Page 4 de la couverture Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1 Matisse in Slow Motion Chapter 2 Art and Natural Being Chapter 3 Proust and the Signifi cant Event Chapter 4 A Figurative Dimension: Reversibility Between the Arts Concluding Remarks Notes Bibliography Index