DOI: 10.4231/5tzg-dn50
title: Painting and the Question of Concepts: Lecture 7, 26 May 1981

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Deleuze Seminars&lt;/em&gt; is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&ldquo;Painting and the Question of Concepts&rdquo; was an 8-lecture seminar given from late March to early June of 1981. In this seminar, Deleuze critiques aesthetic theories which treat art as &lsquo;representation&rsquo;, presenting instead his own aesthetic concepts. Many of the concepts and works of art discussed herein also appear in Deleuze&rsquo;s book published the same year,&lt;em&gt; Francis Bacon-Logique de la sensation&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation&lt;/em&gt;), making &ldquo;Painting and the Question of Concepts&rdquo; an important companion to Deleuze&rsquo;s book.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the 26 May 1981 lecture, Deleuze reviews the central theme of the seminar: a consideration of painting as the act by which one transmits or reproduces a space-signal on the canvas, either by analogy or modulation. Topics of discussion include: the evolving conception of art from the Egyptians to the Greeks, whence philosophy; the primacy of the foreground; the Greek &lt;em&gt;organon&lt;/em&gt;; the tactical-optical space of the Greeks, and the passage from tactile-optical space to a pure optical space; the &lsquo;collective line&rsquo;; the problems of the color(s) of the body/ flesh and of the earth, especially in the West; Goethe; Heinrich W&ouml;lfflin; the Stoics; Plotinus and light; Raphael; C&eacute;zanne; modulation of light; French painter Paul Signac; Eug&egrave;ne Delacroix; and the four &lsquo;characters&rsquo; (&lt;em&gt;caract&egrave;res&lt;/em&gt;) of color.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The new version of this dataset includes: the English translation and French transcription in Open Document Text (odt) format, an aggregate version of the audio recordings in a single mp3, and the original Paris-8 French transcription of the recorded lecture. The dataset of the first version includes the two mp3 recordings of the lecture and a single mp3, and the complete French transcription of the recorded lecture in both pdf and plain text. The aggregate audio file has been downsampled.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Les S&eacute;minaires de Deleuze&lt;/em&gt; sont une collection d&#39;enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents compl&eacute;mentaires des conf&eacute;rences que le philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilles Deleuze a donn&eacute; lors de sa carri&egrave;re &agrave; l&#39;Universit&eacute; de Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&laquo;La peinture et la question des concepts&raquo; &eacute;tait un s&eacute;minaire de 8 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; de fin mars &agrave; d&eacute;but juin 1981. Dans ce s&eacute;minaire, Deleuze critique les th&eacute;ories esth&eacute;tiques qui traitent l&#39;art comme &laquo;repr&eacute;sentation&raquo;, pr&eacute;sentant ses propres concepts esth&eacute;tiques. Beaucoup de concepts et d&#39;&oelig;uvres d&#39;art d&eacute;crites ici apparaissent &eacute;galement dans le livre de Deleuze publi&eacute; la m&ecirc;me ann&eacute;e, &lt;em&gt;Francis Bacon-Logique de la sensation&lt;/em&gt;, faisant de &laquo;La peinture et de la question des concepts&raquo; un important compagnon de le livre de Deleuze.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Dans la lecture du 26 mai 1981, Deleuze passe en revue le th&egrave;me central du s&eacute;minaire: une consid&eacute;ration de la peinture comme l&#39;acte par lequel on transmet ou reproduit un espace-signal sur la toile, soit par analogie, soit par modulation. Les sujets de discussion comprennent: la conception &eacute;volutive de l&#39;art des &Eacute;gyptiens aux Grecs, d&#39;o&ugrave; la philosophie; le primat de l&rsquo;avant-plan; l&#39;&lt;em&gt;organon&lt;/em&gt; grec; l&#39;espace tactile-optique des Grecs, et le passage de l&#39;espace tactile-optique &agrave; l&rsquo;espace optique pur; la &laquo;ligne collective&raquo;; les probl&egrave;mes de la (les) couleur(s) du l&rsquo;organisme/de la chair et du terreux, en particulier dans l&#39;Ouest; Goethe; Heinrich W&ouml;lfflin; les sto&iuml;ciens; Plotin et la lumi&egrave;re; Rapha&euml;l; C&eacute;zanne; modulation de la lumi&egrave;re; le peintre fran&ccedil;ais Paul Signac; Eug&egrave;ne Delacroix; et les quatre caract&egrave;res de la couleur.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 26 May 1981. This is lecture 7 of an 8-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between March and June 1981.