DOI: 10.4231/zmms-he33
title: Painting and the Question of Concepts: Lecture 4, 05 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 05 May 1981 lecture, topics of discussion include: the three diagrammatic positions (expressionist, abstraction, figural); Kandinsky; Piet Mondrian; French writer Michel Butor; Auguste Herbin; a definition of painting as it would be constructed from Deleuze&rsquo;s concept of diagram; digital language and analogic language; Charles Sanders Peirce and his theory of icons; British anthropologist and linguist Gregory Bateson and the language of dolphins; modulation of light and colors; and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the &lt;em&gt;Essay on the Origin of Languages&lt;/em&gt;.&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 lecture du 05 mai 1981, les sujets de discussion comprennent: de trois positions diagrammatiques (expressionniste, de l&rsquo;abstraction, figurale); Kandinsky; Piet Mondrian; l&#39;&eacute;crivain fran&ccedil;ais Michel Butor; Auguste Herbin; une d&eacute;finition de la peinture car elle serait construite &agrave; partir du concept de diagramme de Deleuze; le langage digital et le langage analogique; Charles Sanders Peirce et sa th&eacute;orie des ic&ocirc;nes; l&#39;anthropologue et linguiste britannique Gregory Bateson et le langage des dauphins; la modulation de la lumi&egrave;re et des couleurs; et Jean-Jacques Rousseau et &lt;em&gt;Essai sur l&#39;origine des langues&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 05 May 1981. This is lecture 4 of an 8-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between March and June 1981.