DOI: 10.4231/de6t-qa06
title: Painting and the Question of Concepts: Lecture 5, 12 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 12 May 1981 lecture, topics of discussion include: the concept of analogy; similitude; French naturalist and mathematician Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon; the notion of legality; organic transport; module and modulation; French philosopher Gilbert Simondon; code or digital language; modular or integral (digital) synthesizing of sound; the digital synthesizer, homogenization, and &lsquo;binarization&rsquo; of data; painting as modulation of light and color; C&eacute;zanne and the concept of modulation; French painter Pierre Bonnard; spaces and modulation; Austrian art historian Alois Riegl and the &lsquo;will to produce art&rsquo;; essence, appearance, and &lsquo;the fold&rsquo; in Egyptian and Greek art; analysis of space in Egyptian art; bas-relief; form and background on the same plane; Bacon and flattening; the pyramid and the cube; and the temple.&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 into a single mp3, and the original Paris-8 French transcription of the recorded lecture. The dataset first version includes the three 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 conf&eacute;rence du 12 mai 1981, les sujets de discussion comprennent: le concept d&#39;analogie; la similitude; le naturaliste et math&eacute;maticien fran&ccedil;ais Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon; la notion de l&eacute;galit&eacute;; le transport organique; le module et la modulation; philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilbert Simondon; le langage de code ou digital; synth&eacute;tiseurs sonores modulaire ou int&eacute;grale (digital); le synth&eacute;tiseur digital, l&#39;homog&eacute;n&eacute;isation et &lt;em&gt;binarisation des&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;data&lt;/em&gt;; peinture comme modulation de la lumi&egrave;re et de la couleur; C&eacute;zanne et le concept de modulation; peintre fran&ccedil;ais Pierre Bonnard; espaces et modulation; l&#39;historien d&#39;art autrichien Alois Riegl et le &lt;em&gt;vouloir faire&lt;/em&gt; artistique; l&rsquo;essence et l&rsquo;apparence et le &laquo;pli&raquo; dans l&#39;art &eacute;gyptien et grec; analyse de l&#39;espace dans l&#39;art &eacute;gyptien; bas-relief; la forme et le fond sur un m&ecirc;me plan; Bacon et l&rsquo;aplat; la pyramide et le cube; et le temple.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 12 May 1981. This is lecture 5 of an 8-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between March and June 1981.