Beyond Figuration and Narration: Deleuzian Approaches to Gwen John's Paintings. Issue 2 (May 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tamboukou, Maria
• Is Part Of: Deleuze studies. Volume 8:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 230
• Page End: 255
• Publication Date: 2014-05
• Subjects: Philosophy, French -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism and interpretation -- Periodicals; 194
• DOI: 10.3366/dls.2014.0144
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-2241

Abstract

<abstract xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>In this paper I trace pictorial acts that move beyond figuration and narration, particularly focusing on Gwen John's portraits of women and girls, the work of her maturity as an artist. In doing this I make connections between John's and Cézanne's letters about their painting techniques and direction. The analysis draws on Deleuze and Guattari's approaches to the work of art. I discuss in particular the concept of faciality in the <italic>Thousand Plateaus</italic> and the problem of painting forces in Deleuze's work on Bacon, <italic>The Logic of Sensation</italic>. My argument is that an analysis that goes beyond phenomenology and semiotics opens new ways of seeing and appreciating a modernist woman artist's paintings, and sheds new light on the way her art allows the female figure to emerge as a woman-becoming-imperceptible within a patriarchal regime of signs.</p> </abstract>