Olivier, Bert2010-12-092010-12-092010-112001Olivier, B 2001, 'Merleau-Ponty and painting.' South African Journal of Art History, vol. 16, pp. 139-146.0258-3542http://hdl.handle.net/2263/15406Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)This article takes as its point of departure the question whether, in an age when "artforms" such as multimedia "installations" - which combine visual motifs of all kinds with written texts - seem to be an adequate reflection of an overwhelmingly complex postmodern world, painting still has a right to exist as a distinct art. It is argued that this is indeed the case, and that the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty provides ample material to substantiate this claim. Briefly, this entails the latter's insight concerning the "perceptual dialogue" between painter and visible world, a dialogue which manifests itself in an evolving "style" - or a "coherent deformation" of visual norms - on the part of the painter. Significantly, this presupposes the ambiguity of the visible realm - an ambiguity that is appropriated in one direction or another by the painter's ongoing (equally visible) interpretation of the visually given world. The article concludes with a consideration of the work of a number of postmodern artists in the light of the guiding question, whether their art, as responses to a bewilderingly complex world, may be understood as the outcome of what Merleau-Ponty identifies as the "perceptual dialogue" between artist and world.8 pagesPdfenArt Historical Work Group of South AfricaMerleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908-1961PhenomenologyPerception (Philosophy)Art -- PhilosophyArt -- CriticismArt -- South Africa -- 21st centuryArt -- HistoryArt and societyVisual communication in artPainting -- Themes, motivesPainting -- AppreciationPainting, Modern -- 21st centuryPainting, South AfricanArticle