Artworks that Look at You (and Themselves) Reflections on the Gaze in Lacan, Didi-Huberman, and Pfaller

  1. Bomholt, Marius 1
  1. 1 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

Journal:
Theory Now. Journal of Literature, Critique, and Thought

ISSN: 2605-2822

Year of publication: 2020

Volume: 3

Issue: 2

Pages: 39-57

Type: Article

DOI: 10.30827/TNJ.V3I2.13945 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Theory Now. Journal of Literature, Critique, and Thought

Abstract

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.

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