Artworks that Look at You (and Themselves) Reflections on the Gaze in Lacan, Didi-Huberman, and Pfaller
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/tnj.v3i2.13945Keywords:
gaze, contemplation, contemporary art, Jacques Lacan, Georges Didi-Huberman, Robert PfallerAbstract
The present article reflects on the possibilities of conceiving a non-human, objectual gaze in the context of the contemplation of art by offering a synthetic evaluation of three of its most prominent theorizations: Jacques Lacan’s (often misapplied) formula of the gaze as an embodiment of the objet a, imprisoned by a work of art; Georges Didi-Huberman’s approach that understands the gaze emitted by what he dubs a ‘critical image’ as en exhortation to the observer to examine their own viewpoint in a dialectical play with this image; and Robert Pfaller’s analysis of the interpassive mechanism in art, crystalized in the idea of a work of art contemplating itself without any involvement of the side of the beholder.Downloads
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