Merleau-Ponty at the Gallery: Questioning Art beyond His Reach

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 Cezanne, 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. Veronique M. Foti 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.