
Jean-Paul Sartre, “The Paintings of Giacometti,” 1954:
But how can the artist place a figure on his canvas without confining it? Will it not explode in the empty space like a fish from the depths on the surface of the water? Not at all. A line represents arrested flight, a balance between the external and the internal; it fastens itself around the shape adopted by an object under the pressure of outside forces; it is a symbol of inertia, of passivity.
Giacometti does not think of finitude as an arbitrary limitation, however. For him the cohesion of an object, its plenitude and its determination are but one and the same effect of its inner power of affirmation. “Apparitions” affirm and confine themselves while defining themselves. Somewhat as the strange curves studied by mathematicians are both encompassing and encompassed, the object encompasses itself.
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"...the object encompasses itself."
Jean-Paul Sartre: Surely "Frenchiest" of all Jean-Pauls! I do love the way his words have a way of both confounding and enlightening the mind of the reader. But does "the object encompasses itself" really? Physically yes, but then it just becomes a collection of materials; paper, graphite, etc.
Is it not our perception that that does "real" encompassing? We perceive not just marks, but a drawing. Not "just" bits of graphite on a flat surface of dried wood pulp, but a portrait of a man sitting at a table, with a window behind.
We perceive, we interpret; both we and the artist delineate the boundaries.
Oh yeah! I love it when a drawing explodes from empty space like a fish from the depths. 😁