Manet and the Object of Painting

7/25/2019 Manet and the Object of Painting

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Maet and he }

Objec of Paiig


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anetandthe

Obect of Painng

BY MICHEL FOUCAULT

Translated from French

by Matthew Barr

With an ntroductonby Ncola Bourraud

ate Publshng


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Contents

MCHEL FOUCAUT: MANET ANDTHE BRTH OF HE VIEWER

Nicolas ouriaud

TRANSLATOR'S NTRODUCTON

Mathew ar

MANET AND THE OBJECT OF PANTNG

Michel Foucault

. H PAC OF THE CANVA LGHNG

H PAC O H

NDEX

7

21

25

33

7

73

80


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8 Nicolas BurrudMchel Foucalt: ne d he Brh of e Vewer

MICHEL FOUAULT:

MANET AND E BRT O TE VEWER

Wi s i Ts vig s 1971, s gv ps Pss Cg Ps p vsy'sy ms b g Gp

m s s Pss [G..P. Pxy smi s g ms m p pss bgg m vs ysy J-P S ss spp La Cause du Peuple.v s s s s y . I s vy s v Spmb 1966 k p s Pss Pspy p vsm

s m g ms ss ss mss gs gm Ps gb Ev s by mss s g vs y 1968 s g s s ys sv m pys p p s v g ys.A sm m xp psp ps s by p s

9


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14 Nicolas Bouraud

the histoy of madness, penal incaceation o sexualitFoucault begins by locating the tipping points in the field

of knowledge; b identifig with the cinical .precisionwich chaacteises it these moments whee discousesplits up into a 'befoe and an afte What is the eventwhich inauguates moden painting? Fo Foucault it iscleal Manet Wh? Because he explodes the discouseon whic westen painting is founded a knowledge whichhe makes appea suddnl at the e inteio of what wasepesented in the pictue these opeties these qulitieso these matea lmatons of the canvas wich paintingwhic the pictoial tadition had up until then made it itsmission in some wa to sidestep and to mask5 If Foucaultsaim consists f illuminating the unthought-of in institutionsand pactices that of Manet lies in the einvention ofpainting stating fom its mateiait, hich has bencaefully concealed b the ideological device put in placesince the quatocento based on onocula pespectiveand the illusion of the veduta. The space of the canvas telighting the position of the viewe: the thee leves by whichManet makes classica panting fl off ts hinges

This uptue would not have been possible without theeivaen tansfomation in a adica manne of the pact hich links te painted image to the ealit thatinspies i It is the status o the efeent which explodeswith Manet as is the case in the same ea in the novelso Gustave Flaubet anothe lasting fascination foFoucault laubet is to the liba what Manet is tothe museum he affims They wite the pain in an

5See p.30 of this book

V

essential appot with what makes them paint with whatmakes them wite o athe wih what in paintig and

in witing emains fundamentall open Thei at buildsitself thee whee the achive is fome6 In othe wodsManets painting efes to painting and imitates nothingbut itself The inouctio of the theme of the achivea concept hich pays a cucial ole in the foucaldianmethod sounds hee ike an identiication ak thisinfinie mumu almost ogesian which heidentfies te painte is equally that which he evolveshimsef and his manne of descibing this oeuvewhich extends itself into the space of existing [pictues]ecals the subject which constitutes his own witings:the space of discouse In this Foucault cleal placeshimsel alongside Stphane Mallam who thought thatthe wold was made to culminate in a book with Paulal fo whom the histoy of lteatue could have beenseen to be witten without a singe poe noun beingponounced; o even with And Malaux whose theseson the Imagina Museum had so deepl maked theinteecta ife o his times by aming the autonomy

and the tanscendence ohe histo of at

he fist audacity oanet accoding to Foucault consistedof making a witness out of the viee b showing him thatthe fiues diect thei gaze towad a blind spot outsideof the canvas Analysing the ceebated The Balcony LBalco 1889 he insists on the fact that the thee figuesae looking at somethin that the viewe canot see ewe see nothing With A Bar a te Flies-Bergre U bar

6 Mchel Foucalt, sn titre' ptfe Flber n Dits et ecrits, vl.1Par 21, p32

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18 Ncolas Bouriud

science of the radicay other, of waste of scrap materia

or the mmateria of the shapeess. One coud go as far as

to say that the painter of Olympia constitutes the invsibestitch between thes two major twentieth-century thinkers,

or whom the theoretica preconceptons are numerous

Since the adjectve 'shapeess s accordng to Batae a

term whch serves to decassify demanding generay that

every obect has its form, t s one which devotes itsef to

the study of that whch escaes form one coud say to the

order of dscouse.9 t wod seem howeve that Foucat

was argey heping hmsef to Bataies Manet in order

to prop up his own intuitions10 Thus this sinking of the

subec perceptibe in Manets pctoria practice fnds

equa support in A Ba at the Foes-Beges, described

as a bewtchng of the lght whch relects the game onto

a mirror of vast dimensions a mrror before which the

rea crowd is but a refection i ts magica gh The

crucia roe ofight sience figures reduced to the eve of

things dvergence of gazes the stranguation of discourse:

Batale sigposted the ground shared by Focat hs

does not hide however te authors debt to La ttatue et

ea (teatue and Ev): n 1963 Foucaut had contrbutedto the hoage paid to Bataie by the review Ctque wth a

ong text on the expeience of transgression in which he

nsists on the Bata lean igure o the dsgusted eye12 For

years ater in response to a uestion about hs spritua

masters he spoke f his passo for Batae and o the

pan interest that he fueed for Georges Dum or

Caude LvStrauss so hat one mght beieve Bataie

was even more decisve n hs phiosophca tranng. s t

' Ggs atal. Le dcionaire criqu. Oeans 993, 3 'ode dudiscos (The Ode of Discose) s h Falts 197 banwhh ss t hs nntal hs dss

"Ggs Baal Maet, Gnva 983 Th x as s pshd n 955

Ibd 2 Mhl at Pa a ansgssn ts et ecrits,vl Pas

00, 61

he Fout et the th o the Vewer

not possibe that one even detets n Foucaut n numeous

paces some echoes o Bataes stye of thought? Batae

writes: The whoe of a dstingushes tsef as theevi of a crime or as a spectace of death Everythig in

it s sding towads an indfference to beauty4 Or again

The bourgeose coud not at frst admit that the word

had reduced tsef to what t was and that ony a singe

wordess man remained5 In the as pages of es ots et

es hoses The de o Thngs) one can read these ines:

th gre o man recenty appearng had the effect f a

change in the fundamenta arrangements of knowedge

[.] If these arrangements were to dsappear just as

they had appeared ] one coud certainy bet that man

woud disappear ike a face in the sand at the edge o the

sea6

A specific obect inking Manet Bataie and Foucaut is

none other than the irror pace without pace whch

the atter situates very sgnificant between utopia and

heterotopa and denes as a composte o both t s rom

the mro that I fnd mysef asent from the pace where I

am he rtes, as ong as I ee mysef there7

Such is thediscret et decsive roe of paintng n the theoretica work

of Foucaut absoute heterotopia a oneway mirror in whch

the astery o an s eaced n hs real le t constttes

a sufficenty deep rupture n western discourse to have

infected the heoretca eaboration of Miche Foucaut on

space and time serving as a rid for our modes of hinking

and behavour This rupture produces a ong sence; it s

rom ths slence that the archaeologst s made

M Fa Q ets-vou. ss Fa its et es,vl1Pas 64

a ans 993 69

b 7

a es m e / coses as 99 39 Pbsd Eglsh as Mh Fa, he de f higs Abngn

ls et v Pas 7

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22 Mathew Brr

TRANSLATOR'S IRODUCTO

This lectue on thirteen paintings by Edouad Manet doesnot pesent the inds of complex theoetical issues which

confont a tanslato of Foucaults majo woks, suchas The Order of hings o Disciplin and Punish, wos

deepy ooted in a ench phenomenological tadtion andthe specialized hetoi .of a vey elitist eucation heopening of the lectue was not the only time that oucaultemphasised his lack of taining as an at histoian and theagument heeests fimly on a fomal analyss his beingso geat cae has to be taken to ende the pecision ofthe ekphasis, the obsevations of detai and the thing ofen

ovelooked It shoul be obvious that this is a tansciptionof a ecoding of a lectue and this in itself pesents

some stylistic ddities which cannot eadily be emovedwithoupoducing a wholesale ewite of the text Spokensentences tend to be loge than those of a text intendedfo publication and I have fequently folowe the Fenchtansciption in using semi-colons in ode to ty to claifylong pssages One cuious habit is the epetition of nounsHee again, it is tepting to emove them, but that wouldbe to impose a pesonal style and mask what must havebeen a vey idiosyncatic and foceful lctuing style

' 23

Pehaps the geates difficulty of this text fo the tanslato(and the eade) is to ty to imagine exactly what Foucaultis efeing to when he points out details of the wos

unde discussion Whee this seems uambiguous I have

spplied the infomation in suae backets ometimes,howev it is not possible to be cetain and in these cases have left eades to decide fo temselves It is onl bychance that this lectue alone suvives as a ecoding foma sees on Manet deliveed vaiously at Milan, New YokState Tokyo Floence and Tunis between 1967 and 1971and so caution ust be execised in building agumentsabout Foucaults boade thought fom what must emainan intiguing fagment


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26 Michel Foucault Manet and h Objc of Painng

MANET AND HE OBJECT OF PAINTING

I wul lk r wy y xus mysl s

I m l r. I sms w v , ur

w yrs I v r s spr mysl s

y I lr v spr mu w I m k

Tus; y s sp vrss susss

quss s swrs su lk s 'v

rrv r L y lms xus1 Ayw

wul sk yu rv my lpss my msks prps

v Lmpss my xps

I wul ls Lk xus mys r lk u

us, urs m spls r m

p spls s s s lym wul sp

yu u W I wul Lk vy yu

ry s s: v wsvr spk

yu rl u I wll prs yu,

v mr u r wlv vss y

s pr w I wul Lk, lys, ls

xp r rs I wl spk r

u , v sps w ms

mpr r Ls kw s p

1 Foucault gave hese eures on Tuesday evenings.

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28 Michel Fouaut

Manet always appears in the history of art, in the history

of nineteenth-century ainting as someone of course

who modified the techniqes and the modes of pictorialrepresentation in such a way that he made possible this

movement of Impressionism which occupied the forefront

o the history of art scene during almost all of the second

half of the nineteenth centry. It is true that Manet is

really in effect the precursor of mpressionism it is really

he who ade Impressionism possible; but it is not this

aspect of Manet wit which I am concerned It seems to

me that Manet in effect did soething else that perhaps

what he did was something even more than simply making

Impressionism possible It seems to me that, beyond

even mpressionism what Manet made possible was

all the painting Impressionism is all the painting

of the twentieth century is all the painting from whih

in fact contemporary art developed This deep ruptre

or this rture in depth which Manet brought about is

without doub soeting slightly more difficlt to sitate

than te set of modifications which made Impressionism

possible2

Those things which in Manet's painting made

Impressionism possible, as you will be aware are

elatively well known: new techniques of colour the use

of colours if not pre then at least relatively pre the

use of certain fors of lihting and luminosity which had

not been fully reognised in earlier painting etc On te

other hand, the modifications which made posible beyond

Impressionism in a way over Impressionism the painting

'The concept of rupture in art ad istc rctic ws a mporaoe or Foucault d mbe of h moraries, esecaly Pe Sers ar juna Tl Qe/, whc Fouc hmsecotied. See o examp Mel Pleyet Ls ome dAva-Gare l Q/ Sg 1966 p 8.

j P

which was to come afterwards these modifications are I

believe more difficult to recognise and to siate I believe

that these modifications can even be smmarised andcharacterised with one word Manet in effect is one who for

the first time it seems to m in westen art at least since

the Renaissance, at least since the quattrocnto allows

himself to use and in a way to play wit at the ver interior

of is paintings even at the interior of what they represent

the materialproperties of the space on which he paints

This is moe clearly what I wat to say since the fifteenth

entury since the quattrocento, it was a tradition in

western painting to try to make the viewer forget to

try to mask and sidestep the fact tha paiting was put

down or inscribed on a certain fragment of space which

cold be a wall in the case of fresco or a panel of wood

or again a canva or eventally even a piece of paper

to make the viewer forget, therefore that the painti g

rests o this more or less ectangular srface and in

two dimensions and substitutes for this material space

on which he painting rests a represented space which

denies in a sense the spae which it is ainted and

it is in this way that paintingsince the quattrocento has

tried to represent three dimensions eve wile it rests

on a plan of to dimensions t is painting which not only

represents the three dimensions but privileges in every

possibe way great obliqe lines and spirals in order

to ma and negate he act that the painting was still

inscribed inside a sqare or a rectange of strai ght lines

cut at right angles

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30 Michel Foucaut

Painting has tried equally to represent an interior lghting

in the canvas or even a lghting exterior to the canvas,

coming om the back or rom the right or let in a mannerwhich denies and sidesteps the act that the painting

rests on a rectangular surace really lit by a real light

source, whch evdently varies however with the picture's

placement and with the daylight It must also deny that the

pce was a pece of space n ron of wc e vewe

could be dsplaced around which the viewer could turn,

so that consequently he can grasp an angle or eventually

grasp the two sides and that is why painting, since the

quattrocento, has ixed a certain ideal place rom which

and only rom whch, one can and must see the picture;

so that i you like this materiality o the picture, this level,

rectangular surace really lit by a particular light outside

o itsel, all o this was masked and sidestepped by what

was represented n the picture ise and the picture had

epesened a deep space by a aea sn at one was

seeing like a spectacle rom an ideal place.

There you like s the game o sidestepping o hding o

illuson or elision which painting had practised since the

quattrocento What Manet did [it is n any case one o the

important aspects believe, o the changes contributed

by Manet to western painting) was to make reappear in

a way, at the very interior o what was represented in the

pcture these properties these qualties or these materal

imiaons of e canvas wc pantng wc the pctoal

tradition, had up until then made it its mission n some way

to sidestep and to mask

31 have trnslated saisr nto 'gasp hee, the Frnch vebaso contnng the doule sense o a hysca hld and anunderstndng. Ths notion of 'fxig the vewer ostion and theinteest n woks that aear to queston this tdto reallsocault we-known analyss o Vezuezs Las Menis at theegnning o The Order of hg (966

The rectangular surace, the large vertical and horizontal

axes the real lighting o the canvas the possibilty or the

viewer o lookng in one way or another all o this is presentin Manets pictures and given back restored in Manets

pictures And Manet renvents [or perhaps he invents) the

picture-object, the picture as materiality, the pcture as

something coloured which claries an external light and

n ont o wc or abou wc te vewe revoves.

This nvention o the pictureobect this reinsertion o the

materiality o the canvas in that which is represented, this

believe s at the heart o the great change wrought by Manet

to painting and it is in this sense that one could say that

Manet really turned usidedown beyond what could have

oreshadowed Impressonism all that was undamental in

western panting since the quattrocento

So it is this which would now like to show you by way o

e facts ta s o say n he pctes temseves, and

will ake a series o pictures a dozen canvases which

will try to analyse a little with you and i you wish or the

convenience o the exhibiton I will arrange them under

three rubrics: irstly, the manner in which Manet treated

the very space o the canvas how he played with the

material propertes o the canvas, the supericiality, the

height the wdth how he played with the spatial properties

o the canvas in what he represented on this canvas hat

wil be the rst group o pctures that I wll study next, n

a second grop, w ry to sow yo how Mane treated

the problem o lighting how in these pictures he used not

a represented light which lit the interior o the picture, but

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32 Michel Foucault

how he used real external light Thirdly, how he also playedwith the place of the viewer in relaton to the picture; and

for this third point I wll not study a group of pictures buta single one which moreover, no doubt typifies Maet'soeuvre which is oreover one of the last and one of themost disruptive Manets A Bar at the Folies-Bergre.

Oj P

I. THE SPACE OF HE NV

So f you will the first group q probles and the firstgroup of canvase: how is i t tha Manet represented space?At ths pint we are gong to move to the slides so we mustturn out the lights.

Music in the Tileries (1862}

Here you have one of the fist canvases painted by Manet,a canvas stll very assical; you know that Manet had anentiey classcal traiing he worked n the conformiststudios of the period relatively conformst, he workedth [homas] Couture and he mastered and possessedthe whole of the great pictorial tradtion and in this canvas- t dates from 186162 oe can say that Manet still usesall the traditions that he had learned in the studios wherehe studed4

Already a number of things must siply be signaled: yousee the privilege tha Manet accords to the great verticalines whch are represented by the trees And you se thatManets canvas organises itself according to at the back,two large axes: a horizontal axis which is signaled by theast lne of te figures hads and then the large vertical

4Thomas Coutre 185-79] histoy nd gee pnte, tto toMet fo sx yes.

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34 Michel Fouat

Music n the Tlr

1862

Oil on cavas

7.2 x 8 m

Natal Gery, Ld. an Bqu 97.

xes, w re nded ere w s g repe

em r rer s f empsse em s sm nge

f g rm w e g w mnes e rn e sene sps e vewe r e pner sees s

sene very spery m n er vewpn n e

sme wy ne n see e w ppens bend

b ne des n see very we - ee s n m dep

e gres n fn re n wy mskng ms mpeey

w ppens bend frm w derves s efe f

eze. Te fgres m s f f ee ere nd

e vey eens s ree ee w evey

srened dep.

B O {187)

S nw en yers e ne mes pn pre

w s n sense e sme nd w s e ne

versn f s sme pre s 'An Evenng e

per srry The Ball at th Opra. In sense s e sme

pre y see: e sme ypes f gre men n fs

w p s sme emnne ges w g desses

y see ey e we sp ne s

mded e spe s been fed sed frm bend;

e dep w ws eng y ws n vey mred n

e peedng pre b w esed nneeess s

dep s nw sed s sed by k w nd

s g sgn ery ee s w nd

ee s nng see bend. Y ne ese w ver

ps nd s enms ver br ere w rmes

e pre w n wy dbes nsde e pre

e ve nd e rzn f e nvs s rge

JS


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36 Mihel Foucault

ectangle of the canvas, you find it epeated inside and t

closes the depth of the pictue peenting consequently

the effect of depth.

Not only is the effect of depth effaced, but the distance

between the edge of e picture and the back is elatiely

shot such that all the fgues fnd themseles pojected

fowad; fa fom thee beng depth you hae on the

contay a sot of phenomenon of elief the adancing

figues and the black of the costumes equally of the

desses the black absolutely blocks al that the clea

colous could hae done n a way, to in fat open the

space The space is closed at the bac by the wall and atthe font by these desses and costumes. You do not ealy

hae space per se, you hae only something Like packags

of space, packages o olumes and sufaces which ae

poected owads towads the iewe's eyes

he only eal opening o rathe the only opening which

is epesented in the pictue is this ery cuous opening

which is hee, ght at the top of the pictue, and which

does not open onto a tue depth which does not open

onto something Like the sky or the Light. Remembe, in the

peous pcture, you had a small tianle of ight a small

tiangle whch opened onto the sky ad fom whee the

light spled out hee by a sot of ony the ight opens onto

othg bt what? We you see the feet and the touses

and the est, that is, the whole goup of figues beginnng

to epeat as though the pictue estated hee [at the leel

of the balcony) as though it wee the same scene and this

M O P

2 Th Masked Bl t h Opr

18-4

Oil on canvas

59.1 x 72 cmNatonal Gallery of Art Washington

ift f Hace Havemeye i memoryf s mothe, Lousne W avemeyer

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38 Michel Foucaut

one indefiniely: the effect, consequentlyf a tapesty, ofa wall he effect of pained paper that ou see extending

iselall along wit the irony of two Littlefet which swinghere and hich idiate te fantasy charact of this spacewhich is not the real space of perception which is not thereal space of the opening ut hich is the play of thessurfaces and these olours spiLed andrepeated indefiitelyfro op to bottomf the anvas

The spatal ppeties of tis etangle 6 canvas ar thusrepresented, manifested exated what is representedi he nvs itsf a ou se how Mnet by relain

to he reviou anvas, ich rate aially moshesameubjec has entirely loed up the space but howtis ime it is the aerial popertis o the canvas wicare represented in te pictue itselP

The Execution of Mamle (868)

Do you want to e he next pictur hich i TheExecuton of Maximilien? A pictue which dates from 187evidently and where you find once again, as you can seemost of the haracteristics which I have just signalled ithregard to he Ball at the Opera; tis is an earier picturebut you already have here the same procedures, that is tosay a violently marked and compressed closing of space bythe presence of a Lare wall a large wall which is no morethan the repetition of the canvas itself whereby as you cansee, al the fgures are aced on a narow band of earthso that you have something ike a staircase, the effect ofa staircase, which is say orizontal-verical and, again

'Foucalt had been interested in th.phenomenon fo some time,havng remaked n The Ordr of hings pon Vezqezs ncsonof an ese in Las Meninas and made the sae observaton n ecnest ps ne ppe hs essay on Marite ft pbshed n thejona Ls Cahies du chemin in 1968

O

soeting Like a vertical a horintal which oens up withthe small figures on the wall] w are watching the scene.

You see howeve tat one has ere almost th same effectas_ aoment ago in the scene in eall at the Opera, whereyou had a all whic was close and a scne wich beganagain there; and so you hve hee hanging o behind ewall again a small sene whic repeats the pictue.

Now if I so you tis picure it is not simply because itgives once agai o it givs inadvance these eleents thaton ust fid again Later in he. Ball at the Opera it is foranother easn: you se tha all t figures ae erefore

ace on t same narrow Little rectangle on which theyhae laced their eet sot o saircase bhind whic youhave a Lage vet ical hey ae all drawn ose on tis sallspace tey are al ry near to one another s ne tha, as?U se the e barres e touchng their chests I souldhav mentoned, however that tese horionts and the

_vertical position o the soldiers mounts ncegain tonothing more than mutiplying and repeating insie thepicture the arge horiontal and vertical axes of the anvas.In any case the soldiers here touch at the tip of their riflesthe figures that are there There is no distance betweenthe firing squad and their vicms ow if you look yocan see that these figures here [the victims are smallerthan [the executioners there even though normally theymust be of the same sie, as Long as they are vey exactlyon the same pane and they are arranged one accordngto the other with very little space to arrange themselves;that is to say, Manet makes use of this strongly archaic

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40 Michel Fouault

3 The Execution of Maime

1868Ol vs

252 02

Ksll

Manet and the Object of Paintng

technique which consists of making the figures diminish

without dividing them out aross the plane (which is the

technique of painting before the quattroento . He uses thistecnique to signify or symbolise a distance which is notactually represented.

In his picture, in the space which he gives himself in this

tin rectangle where he places all the figures it is veryevident that Manet could not repesent distance Distance

cannot be given to perception; one does not see distanceOn the other hand the iminution of figures indicates a

sort of purely intellectual and non-perceptive recognition

that tere ust be a distance between the victims andthe firing squad and this merceptibe distance this

distance which is not given to he gaze is simply signalled

by this sign whih is the diminution of figures Beginningas you can se to evolve in the very interior of this small

rectangle that Manet gives himself and where he places his

figres are some of the fundamental principles of pictorialperception in the West.

Pictorial perception must be like the repetition the

redoubling the reproduction of the perception of everydaylife What had to be represented was a quasieal space

where distance could be read appreciated deciphered inthe way that we ourselves see a landscape There we enter

a pictorial space where distance does no offer itself tobe seen where depth is no longer an object of perception

and where spatial posiioing and the istancing'of figures

are simpl given by signs which have no sense or function

41


19/38

42 Michel Fouault

excep inside h picure; ha is, by h relaionship in

some ways arbirary in any case puey sybolic beween

h size of he figues here [he vicis] ad he size of hefigures here [he execuioners

The Port of Bodeaux (1871)

Would you now ike o ove to he nex picure which plays

wih anoher proper o he canvas? In hose whic 've

jus shown you, h

e Ball t the Oper or The Execuion of

Mxmlen, w Mane as using wha he was playing

wih in his represenaion was above al e fac ha

he avas was verical, ha i was a surace in wo

diensios, ha i had no deph and in a way Mane wasrying o represe his absece of eh by diinishing

as far as possibe e very hikness of he scene which

e represens. Here in his picue which daes fro he

year 1872 f reebe correcy wha n play as you

see is essenialy he horizonal and vercal axes6 These

orizonal and verical axes areeally repeiions inside he

canvas of he horizonal and erical axes which frae he

canvas and which for he very fae of he picure Bu,

as you see i is equally he reproducion o a sor in he

vey grain of he paining of al he horizonal and verical

fibres which consiue he canvas iself he canvas in

which has aerial

s as hough he weave of he cavas was in he process

of saring o appear and show is inernal geoery and

yu see his inerlacing of hreads which is ike a skech

represened on he canvas iself f however you isolae

6 It is lkely that he does not remembe coety - ths work is nowgeeraly epted to date om 8701.

O P

4 T P f Bux

8O o avas66 995 mvate coecto, Swtzead

43


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4 Michel Foucault

this part, this quarter [the top left) this sixth pehapsof the canvas you see that you hae a game of almost

exclusively horizontals and vertcas which are cut likeright anges, and tose among you wo are n the spiritof Mondran's pcture of a tre or rather the seres ofvarations that Mondrian made on trees yu know duringthe ears 1910-14 there you see the very birth of astractpaintng. Mondrin treated hs tree hs famous ree outof which, at the same time as Kandinsky he dscoveedabstract pantng a itte ike Manet treated the boats in P

of Bordeaux. Fromhis tree, he fnally extrated a certain

play o lnes which match up to the right angles and whch

orm a sort of framework a draughtboard a framework ofstraight horiontal and vertical Lnes And so in the sameway n this tange of boats n a the actvty of ths portManet has come to extract this, ths game of vericas andhoriontals which are the geometrcal representation ofthe very geometry of the canvas in which it has materalThis game of the weave of the canvas you wl see aganshoty n a manner at once amusng and for ths perodabsutely scandalous in the next picture which s caled

Argenteuil.

Argenteuil (1874)

Woud you ke to move to the next canvas? You see thevetcal axs of the mast which repeatsthe edge of thepcture ths horiontal here which repeats this other one;

and the two large axes which are therefore representednside the canvas but you see what it is that is repesented,t is precsey the weave, the weave whch comes from

n h Oj o ii

5 Argenteuil

187Gl on cavs9x5m

Muse d Bax-Art l Vill Ton. lgq

45


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46 Michel,Fouault

6 In the Greehouse

1879Oil on canvas

5x0cmNatoalgaler, $aalhe Museen zu Bel

Manet d he Objec of Pinng

the vertical and horizontal lines; and the characte, atonce popuar npoished and the gres and what is

represented in this canvas, no more tan a game orManet a game which consists of representing in a cnvasthe very properties o a weave and the intelacing and thematching p o the vertical and the horiontal.

In the Greenhouse (1879)

Wold yo like to move on to the next canvas, which iscalledIn the Greenhouse and whih is all the same one o themost impotant o Manets canvases or ndestanding themanner o his play [it eems that Focat had a problem

at this point in inding his reprodction - the reordingis broken hee indiating tha a ew seconds were lost]. the vertca the horionta and this interlacing o thevery ines o the pictre Yo see ho space the depth othe pictre is restrained Immediatey bhind the igresyo have tis tapestry o green plants which no aze coldpiece and which noll bsotely like a backgondcanvas absoltely like a wall o ppe whch cold havebeen there no depth, no ighting pierces this space thisorest o leaves and stems which people the greenhose

where the scene occ

The ge o te woman hee is entey pojectedowards the legs themselves are not seen in he pictrethey extend beyond it; the woman's knees eend in a wayot o the pictre rom hich she is poected orwardsor thee is no depth and the igre behind i toppingove entiey towads s with ths enomos ace that

47

M Oj P


22/38

48 Michel Foucault

you can see, whih is shown somehow very cose to us,amost too close to be seen while he has tipped forwards

and is arraged in such a short space - the osuretherefore of space and of couse the game of verticsand hoizontas the whoe cture bared y this stagethe back f this seat the Line of the seat which finds itsefrepeated fisty here a econd time there a fourth timehere a ine which is found doubed in white this time ythe woman's umbrea; and now fo the veticas a ofthis grd here wth simy hs sma vey shot diagonato indicae epth. The woe pictue is structued aroundand starts fom these verticas and horizontas

And if you now add that the fods of the womans robetake the fom of verica olds here [eow the waistband]ut that you have a this fanshaped moement of thewomans dress here across the seat], which means thatthe fist fods are towards the horizonta ike these fourfundamenta nes ut that in urning the dress endsby amost achievng the vertca you see that ths pay offods which goes from the urea to the womans kneesreprduces by turning the movement which ru_ns from thehoizonta to the vetica and it is this movement that iseproduced here Now add that you have a hand whichhangs the womans eft hand and a hand going the otherway the man's eft hand] and you have at the centre ofthe picture on a cear ground repoducing the axes ofthe picture the same vertca and hoizonta ines thatyou find in dark ines constituting the very amature ofthe seat and the interior achitectue of the picture And

M Oj P

here therefore you have the whoe game which consistsof deeting erasing and ompressing space in terms

of depth and on the contrary intensifyin the ines fverticaity and horiontality.

So that s what I wanted to say to you concerning he pay ofdepth, of vertca and hoizonta n anet ut thee 1s stianother way for anet to pay with the maeia propertiesof the canvas because the canvas is ealy n effec asurface a suface which has a horizonta and a verticabut it is oreover a surface of two faces a and aecto which a ane st moe vcou and maicous

if you ike anet wi set in pay

The Waitress (1879)

And her is ho: if you ove o the next picture wich is TheWaitress, one ha a crous eampe n effet what doesthis picture consist of and what des it represent? Reay ina sense it does not rpreset anything in so far as it offersnothing to see n effect, you have i tta here and r atota, in this picture this figure of the waitess whih yousee very close to the painte very cose to the viewer, verycose to us who has a fae turned suddeny turned towardsus as thogh a spectace as suddeny pesented itsef infont of he and attracted he gaze You see that she is notooking at what she i dong, which is putting down her beergass but her eye has een attracted by something thatw do not see that we do not know which is there, in frontof the canvas therwise the canvas is compos of onetwo or at the most thee other figues n any case one o

49

50 Michel Foucaut M t d h Obj f P i


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50 Michel Foucaut

wo which we almost do no see snce beween hem we

see hardly anyhing bu he reedng profile and afer ha

we see nohing excep he ha Raher, whoeve hey areLooking a hey are hemselves Looking [back] a hem in

exacly he opposie direcion. Wha do hey see? Well we

know nohing abou i we know nohing snce he pcure

i cu in such a way ha he specacle which is here and

by which hese gazes are aracd hs specacl is also

hidden from us

Conside now if you will a paining of he classical ype - i

doesn' maer which I happens o be very radional in

paining ha a piure represens people in he pocess ofLooking a somehng For example if you ake Masaccios

The bute Money [c1425 you se ha he figurs are in

a circle and are looking a somehing Tha somhing is

a dialogue or raher an echang of a con beween Sain

Peer and he ferryman There is herefore a speccle bu

his specacle ha he figures in he picure are waching

we know we see i is given n he picure

Here hough [in The Waitess]. we have wo figues who

Look bu firsly hese wo figure do no Look a he same

hng and secondly he pcure does no ell us wha

hese gues a Lookng a s a pcue whee nohing

is represened excep wo gaes wo gaes in wo oppose

direcons, wo gazes in he wo opposie direcions of he

picure recto veso, and neiher of he wo specacles

whch are acually folowed wih so much aenion by

he wo gues ehe of hese wo specacles is gve

Manet ad h Objc of Pig

7 The Waitres

1879

Oil on canvs

77.5 x 65 m

Mue d'Ory, P

51

52 Michel Foucaut Manet ad he Objec of Paining 53


24/38

52 Michel Foucaut

8

18-3Oil n canvas93. x cmNatoa Gallery fAt, WashngtnGft f Hae Havemeye n memy hs mther Luisne W Havemeyer

Manet ad he Objec of Paining

us; url s, yu v urus r

s ll pr yu s [ l]

s sml pr rss. T s rlrvrs s pur s rprs w ws

_s y s urs; w s rprs s r

sr rm r prrss r [ l]

k pl, s r sus sp

vrs w u L}; wrs

s vrs s s vrss w I m sw yu

w7 A s s s vrs s u

spl su wy s s u r s

s, pur sul ss s zs ur

rs vsl sw u vsl u y r

pps zs sm w s ssrly vsl

s s r vs w s s r

s rry vs Frm pr

vs r, yu v w spls r

s w s u s r vs, s

sw w s s, s ls . T

sure w s w s recto ves, s pl wr

vsy ss sl s pl w ssurs

rry, vsy w s s y urs

r ru vs.

Saint-Lazare Sao {18723)

Ts s lr s pur [Th Waitess] lrr sl

yu r w w s ll Saint Lazae

Sttin. Hr yu v w vrs m rk;

urs yu s lwys w vrs sm vrls

'Danel Deet has cared ths, sggestng that there ae nteact tw versns bt that Fucat eans Coer of a Cafoncet c87880) Ths canvas was cut n ha b Manet dng tseecutn and the ethand ptn s nw n the ska RenhartCectn n Wnteth, Swtzeand

53

54 Michel Fouaut P


25/38

54 Michel Fouaut

and he same horizonals ha We have found before: hese

vericals and hese horzonals whch defne a cerain plan

n he picure,

a sese he pan of the canvas, ad so you have wo

figures as we had a momen ago The Waitress, wo

figures who summon us head-oal, one Lookng in our

drecion, he oer Looking n he same direcion as us.

One urns her face owards us, he oher on he conrary

urs he back o s hat the woma s wachg ad

you see ha she waches i wh a grea sor of inensy

s a specacle ha we canno see snce is n fron of he

canvas; and as for wha he Lle girl s Lookg a, welwe canno see snce Mane has deployed here he smoke

o a ra whch s jst passg sch a way ha we we

have nohing o see And o have seen wha hey see, we

would have had her o ge over he shoulder of he ile

grl or o have walked around he picure n order o see

over he womans shoulder

You see how ane plays wh hs maerial poper of

he canvas which means ha is a plane a plane which

has a recto and a verso; and up unil now no oher paner

amused himelf by using he recto and he verso. Here,

he uses no ony n he way ha he pans he fron an

back of he canvas bu n a sense by forcng he vewer

o have he desre o urn he canvas around, o change

posion in order finally o see wha one senses mus be

seen bu al he sae is no gven in he pcure And i

is hs game of nvsibiy assured by the surface of he

P

canvas which ane ses n play nsde he picure in a

manner ha as you see, one coud say s all he same

vcous malicious and cuel, snce i is he firs ime hapaning has presened self as somehng invisble ha

we wach The gaes are there to dcae o s tha thee

s somehing o see, somehng ha is by definion and by

he ver naure of he canvas, necessarily invsbe.

5

Maet nd ihe Objec of Pg 57


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56 Michel Foucaut

9 The Fifr

1866

Ol on cavs

6x7cm

Mu d'Osy, P

j g

I. LGHTNG

Would you like to move on to the next canvas, which

brings us o the second series of problems I woud

ike to speak to you about? hese are the probems of

illumnation and Lightng.

The Fifer (1866)

You know this picture The Fifer, whch dates from 1864

or 5 a pcture which at that time had some scandalous

repercussions You know hat Manet - and this is no

oe han he sm o wh9 hve een sayng p n

now entey removed he background of the picture.

Yo see tha there is no space at al behind the fife;

not only is thee no space behind the fifer but the fifer

in a way is placed nowhere You see the space where

he places his feet hs stage this floor is indicated byamost nothing this iny shadow this very ight grey mark

here which marks the differene between the bottom of

the wall and the space on which he places his feet The

tarcae whch we have seen in the precedng pictures

s even emoved hee here nohng o seve as a

dat o Le Fifre acy 866.

58 Michel Foucault Manet ad he Objc of Paining59


27/38

place where he posiions his ee excep his very lighshadow. Is deiniely a shadow, is deiniely nohing a

all, if deinely he void on which he places hs ee

Bu wha I would like o say mos abou The Fifer s nohis, bu he manner in which is i illuminaed. Ordinariy inradional panng, as you know very well, he lgh sourceis always suaed somewhere There is, eher rom hevery nsde o he canvas o om outsde a lumnoussource which s direcly represened or simply ndicaedby rays o lgh: an open window indicaes ha he lighcomes rom he rgh or example or rom above rom

he le, rom below, ec, and ousde o he real lighwhch srkes he canvas, he pcue aways epesensn addiion, a ceran ligh source which seep he canvasand provokes upon he igures here all he alling shadowswhich orm he modelling, he relie, he hollows, ec. is ha whole sysemaisaion o ligh which was nveneda the begnnng o he quaroceno and o whch, as youknow Caravaggio o whom a parcular homage must bepaid here gave regulary and perec sysemaizaion

Here, on he conrary you see ha here is absoluely noligh coming rom above or rom beow or rom ousdehe canvas; or raher al he lgh comes rom ousde ohe canvas, bu srkes absoluely a he perpendicular.You see ha he ace presens absoluely no modellng,simply wo lle hollows eiher side o he nose o indicaehe eyebrows and he holows o he eyes You noice,however, ha he shadow, pracically he ony shadow

Manet ad he Objc of Paining

whch is presened n his picure, is hs iny ile shadowhere under he hand o he ier and whch indicaes h in

eec he lighng comes rom absoluely opposie since is behind the ier, in he hollow o he hand ha he onlyshadw o he picure is drawn wi his one [under hisle oo] which assures sabily as you see his iny lileshadow whch s he indicaion o he rhyhm ha he eprins on his music in apping his oo as you see, he lighlyrases hs oo which gves om th shadow unde hele oo] o hs one in he igh hand] he lage diagonalwhich is reproduced clearly here by he ier's lue caseSo we have an enirely perpendcular lighing, a lighng

which is he real lighing o he canvas i he canvas n ismaealy was o be exposed o an open wndow, in rono an open window.

Tradiionaly, i was common n paining o represen in hepicure a window by hich a-icve lgh swep he igusand gave hem her ree. Here we mus adm a canvas,a recangle a surace which s isel placed in ron o awindow a window which illuminaes i in absoluely ullsho Mane evidenly did no ulil his radica echniqueo suppression o an nerior lgh and is replacemen byreal exeror and rona ligh he momen he pu i inoplay; and in one o his mos celebraed pcurs, he irso his gea picures you are going o see ha he usedwo lighing echniques concurrenly

59

60 Michel Foucault n d Obj f Pg 61


28/38

Luncheon on the Grass (1863)

Would you Like to move to the next pictue? It is the amous

Luncheon on the Grass. I wil not attempt to anayse this

Luncheon on the Gass it in its entiety - thee is evidenty

a geat deal to say on this subject I want to speak smply

about Lightng. In act, n thispictue, you have two systems

o Lighting which ae juxtaposed and which ae uxtaposed

n det You see n effec ta n te scond art of e

pictue, i one alows that this Line hee, o the gass spits

the pictue in two you have a Lghtng whch s a tadtional

Lighting with a Light souce coming om above, om the

let, wich sweeps the scene which illuminates this lage

meadow om the bottom, which stke the back o thewoman, which models he ace in one pat plunged in

shadow; and this Lighting comes to an end hee on two

clea bushes !this can't be vey cealy seen because

the epoduction s not vey good) two clea and slghtly

dazng uses wc ae n a way te meeng pons of

this latea and tiangula Lightng hee and hee. ou have,

theeoe a tiangua Lightng which sweeps the woman's

body and models he ace: taditional Lighing, classca

Lghting which Leaves the elie and whch is constituted

by an nteio Light.

Now you take the gues in ont what chaacteises

them is the act that they ae Lit by a competely dieent

ght whch has nothing to do with the pecedng one which

comes to an end on tese two buses ou have a gtng

which ontal and pependicua which stikes, as you

see, the woman and this entiely nude body, which stkes

j g

L Grss

863

v2 x 64.5 m "y,

61

62 Michel Foucaut O P 63


29/38

it from directly opposit: you s that thr is absolutly norlif, no modlling. Th woman's body is a sort f naml

as in Japans painting Th lighting coms only brutallyand from opposit It is this lighting hich striks quallyth fac of th man, hich striks qually this profil [ofth mal figur on th right] absolutly flatl ithout rlifithout modlling, and th to dar bodis th to arkjackts of ths to mn, a th culminating and ndpoints of this frontal lighting, just as th to bushs hrr th dazzling and culminating points of th intriorlighting an xtrio lighting blockd by th bodis of tomn and an intrior lighting rpatd by th to bushs

Ths to sysms of rprsntation, or rathr ths tosystms of manifsting light insid a pictur a uxtaposdhr in this vry canvas, ar in a juxtaposition hich givstis pictur its slightly discrdant charactr, its intrnalhtrognity; an itrnal htrognity hich Man tridin a ay to rduc or prhaps rahr to undrlin - I don'tkno by this hand hich is hr this clar hand hich isin th middl of th pictur that of th mal figur on thright Rmbr hovr, th to hands that I shod

you a momn ago In the Greenhouse, and hich r thrproduction by th fingrs of th ry axs of th picturso hr you hav this hand ith its to fingrs on fingrhich points in this dirction or this dirction, hich isprcisly th dirction of th intrior light, of this lighthih coms from abov and from lshr And on thcontrary th fingr is bnt bnt toards th outsid onth axis of th pictur, and it inicats th oigin of th

light hic stiks hr, in such a ay that you hav inthis hadplay th fundamntal axs of th pictur and h

principl - at on of linking and of htrgnity of thisLuncheon on he Grass.

Olympia (1863)

Would you no li to com to this, on hich I ill bbrif? I ill not say much to you about this pictur simplybcaus I am not capab and it is too difficult I ouldlik simply to spak to you on th subct of lighting or if

yu lik, Im going to spak to you about th point of vihich can b takn concrning th rappor btn th

scandal that tis canvas provokd and a crtain numbrof its puly pictorial charactristics and, I blivssntially, th light

This Olympia as you kno, causd a scandal hn it asxhibitd at th 1865 Salon it causd ascandal that on isobligd to lav asid Thr r th bourgois typs ho,visiting th Salon, antd o put thir umbrllas throughit, so indcnt did thy find it But th rprsntationof fminin nudity in strn painting is a tradition

hich rvivs in th sixtnth cntury and on hs snmany othrs bfor Olympia causd a scandal What isscandalous thn, aout this painting, hich did somthinghich could not b tolratd?

rt historians say, and vidntly thy ar quit right, thath moral scandal as no mor han a clusy ay offormulating somthing that as an asthtic scandal on

64 Michel Fouau 65


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64 Michel Fouau

1 Olympia

1863Oil on cavas

30.5 x 9 cm

Muse d'ry, Pas

ds nt trt ts stt, ts s f tn. ts grt

Jpns sty pntng, w s gy nd w s mnt

t b gy A f ts s bsty tr I sk mysf f trs nt n sgty mr prs wy, ntr rsn fr

t snd w s nkd prsy t t gtng?

In fft - nfrtnty 'v frgttn t brng t ts

nvs mst b mprd t n w srvs p t

pnt s md nd f; y knw tt ts Vs, fny

ts Olympia f nt, s t db, t rprdtn,

wys spkn f s vrtn n t tm f nd

Vnss rnng Vnss nd n prtr t Vns f

Ttn [Venus of Urbino 1538] In Ttns Venus, y v wmn nd wmn w s sgty rnng n ts

pstn Arnd r tr r rtns sr f gt

frm bv t t ft w sfty gts p t wmn

w mnts, f I rmmbr t f n ny s

rtny t brst nd t g nd w s tr k

gdd sp w rsss r bdy nd w s n

n wy t prnp f t bdys vsbty If t bdy f

tns Vnu s vsb, f s gvs rsf t r gz, s

bs tr s ts sp, ts mns, dsrt, tr

nd gdn sr w srprss r w srprss

r n sm wys mng r nd mng s Hr s ts

nd wmn drmng f ntng, kng t ntng, nd

tr s ts gt w ndsrty stks rsss

r, nd s vwrs w srprs t gm btwn ts

gt nd ts ndty


31/38

68 Michel Fouaut at ad t t Paiti 69


32/38

What is more, you ee that the whole pitue is n blak andwhite with this one olou that is not blak and white, asthough.it wee the fundamental coou, the geen It is thevey invesion of the quattoento omula whee the lageahtetual elements must be plunged intoshade meelyepesented in the dak with figues who themselvesay the olous, these geat blue ed and geen desseset as you see n the fgues fom paintngs n that epoh;theeoe, the ahtetual eleents ae light and dak,blak and white and the figues ae taditonally olouedHee, you have the exat opposite The fgues ae in blakand white and the ahitetual elements, nstead of beng

swallowed p in the semi-dakness ae on te ontayexalted and aentuated in a way by the gash geen of theanvas So muh fo the vetial and the hoizontal

W egd o te dep thee agan Mane's game heeis patiulaly vious an uel beause the ptueopenswell though a window onto a depth but you see thatthis depth is eluded hee just as ompletely as a momentago in La Gre Sint-Lzre [Snt-Lze Stton] whee thelandsape was eluded by the smoke fom the tain Hee you

have a window whih opens onto something whih s entelyobsue entiely blak One distinguishes ith diffulty avey vague efletion of a metalli objet a sot of teapotthee wih a little by aying it, but s bael vsibeAnd al of s gea olow spae s gea empy spaewhih must nomaly open onto a depth why is t endeedinvisible o us and why does t ende us invisible? Well veysimply beause all of the ligt is exteio to the pitue

12 The Balcony

1868-

Oil on cavs

170 x 24.5 cm

Muse d'Orsy, Pas

70 Michel Fouault at n Ot o Pii 71


33/38

Rather than pentating into th pture the ight soutside, a 1 s otsie presely beause the vewe is ona bcony; w must assume tat the.may sun strikes the

bany hea on, stkes these figures e on the pointof eatng away the shows a yu note tse argewhite ayers of the esses in whih absoutey o shaowis raw_n jt a few spaking efetions onseqenty nosaw an so eey shaow is behin beause by the

effet of bak-ighting o ouse oe anot ee what theeis n the room an instea of having a ghtark piturenstea of having a piture where gt an shaow mxtogther yo have a uriou pitur in whh a te ightis on one se, a the shaow on the othe a te ight isfro n front o the pie an a the shao is from theote sie of the pitre as i the ey vertiaity theanvas separates a wor of shaow wh is behin ana wo of gt whih is in font

An at the imit of this saow whih is ben n o thisgt whih is in font you have these tee gures hoae in a sense suspene who rest amost on nothingthe best poof that they rest on nothn s this: ook at thistte foot of Berthe Morisos sste here [the fgre onthe rgt] this itte foot whih swings ike so as though it ha nothing on whi to est It is ike n Gotto's SaintFrncs Gvng Hs Manle o a Poor Man, the fgures o notrea stan on anything The three figures are suspenebetween the arkness an the ght between the nteroran the exterior, between the room an the aUght Theyare there two whtes one bak ike three musia notes

they ae suspene at te imit o igh an aknessnotie someting of a RaisngofLazrs aspet to thispiture at the iit o ight a arkness of ife n eath

An Magritte te Surreaist painte, as you know mae avariation on ths pitue we he represente te saeeements but inste o the figures he epresente threeoffins0 !s reay ths imi of ife an eh of ight anakness whh is hee maifeste by these thee figuresthese three fges of whom ne o say oreovethat they o ok toars soething, hat they ook wthintensiy toars somehing whih we o not see

A here again, vsibiity is amost sgnae by the fat

that the three fges ook in three ffeent retions athree absob by an intense spetae whih, evientywe annot know one beause it is in front of e anvaste other beause it s to the right of the anvas, the thirbeause it is o the eft of the anvas An in any asewe we see nothng we see ony te gaes not a paebut a geste an aways the gestues of hans foinghans unfoing hans hans atuay unfoe govesput on goves about to be put on an hans without govesan it is this same trning gesture wh is at root the

gesture whi makes the three figures t is simpy tsire of hans whh unifies hee again as befoe n In TheGreenhouse an as earie n Lunhon on th Grass thesevegent eements of a pture whih is notng other thante briiane of invisbity itsef

10 Ren Magrit, Le Balcon d Mt 95 Musm vanHedendaags Kt Ghe Blg.

72 Michel Foucaut Manet ad the Object of Painting 73


34/38

13 A Bar at he Folies-Bege

188-2

Ol on canvas

96 x 30 m

The Sauel Cortaud Tst,Cotauld Intie of t Gaey London

Ill. THE PLACE OF THE VWER

A Bar at the Folies-Beg {18812)

And now, if you wish to move to the final pantng

t s on ths that I will fnsh. Ths brgs us to the thrd

element about whch would Lke to speak to you no

longer space, no longer ight but the very place of thevewer. It s the last of Manet's great paintngs it s the

Bar at the Foles-Bergre, whch can be found in ondon.1 It

s a picture whose strangeness evdenty I do not need to

pont out to you But the stangeness is not really strange

snce it is a pcture whose eements are really very well

known: the presence of a central fgure of whom one akes

the portrat n a sense for her alone and then behind ths

fgure a mrror whch reflects to us the very mage of

ths fgure. Is somethng very classc in pantng for

exampe, the Portrait of Countess d'Haussonvlle by Ingress exactly on ths model you have a woman behnd

the woman a mrror and n the mrror you see the

woman's back.

Un bar aux Folies-Bege, ouaul Inue of odon 882.

74 Michel Foucaut Oj P 75


35/38

nw, n's pr, nggng s rdn r

s p b s sm m ry dffrn

nd n n vry qky pn dffrns. Tprnp, s s s mrrr ps pry f bgrnd f pr. dg f mrrr

s s gd bnd r [rnnng bnd fgs wrss],

s n ss sp w sr f pn srf

s g w w. And s sm nq s ne Exection of MaxmUen r Th Ball athe Opera: bnd fgrs, mmdy bnd m, rss w b n

vry vs wy n s n s w, nd by f s mrrr rprsnd w r s n frn f

nvs n s wy n ds n s s r s n r ny dp. I s db ngn f

dp sn n ny ds n n s w s bn

wmn bs s s mmdy n frn f mrrrb n ds n s bnd wmn w r s n

frn f r. s frs ng n sd sy b pr.

Eq y s gng s n w s nry

frn nd srs wmn n f s r.

Agn n s smpy n wy rpd mnd nnng n rprsnng frn g nsd pnng by prdn f s w mps; b

s rprd s vdny mrrrd prdn

rfr g srs py msvs xry fbng rprsnd n pr w n ry y m

frm nwr b sd pr, n sp n frn.

S r y v rprdn nd rprsnn

f g srs sm m s gng

y srs wmn frm sd. B s r

dbss n mr n rvy sgr nd pr

sps f pr. mr mprn n dbs mnnr n fgrs, mns rr,

r rprsnd n mrrr. In prnp, f s s

mrrr, rfr vryng ms b fnd n frn f mrrr s rprdd nsd mrrr n ms fnd sm mns r nd r. In f y wr

ry n nd fnd sm bs r nd r, y

wd n mng , bs n f r s dsrn

bwn s rprsnd n mrrr nd w ms

b rfd n B vdny gr dsrn s n rfn f wmn r sn y r bgd s

rfn f fgr r [n rg f pr.

Y d n nd v s f p ds rs s- n snss n ns n fs n ng s

p - n rdr s rfn f wmn

w wd b pd r, s r [n rg

vwr nd pnr ms fnd msvs f y sgy vr r wr I p my s s sy, vrym sdwys. And s mmn wmn pd

r d ry v r rfn fny n wds r rfn r, wrds xrm rg wmns rfn b sfd rds rg

vwr r pnr msvs ms s sf wrds

rg. D y gr? s vry vdn pnr

nn b sfd wrds rg bs ds n

s gr n prf b frm pps. b b pn wmns bdy n s psn, ms b xy

76 Michel Foucaut j P 7


36/38

opposite; but in order to paint the woman's refectionhere on the extreme right, he must be there. The painter

therefore occupies - and the viewer is therefore invted tooccupy after him successivey or rather simutaneousytwo incompatible paces: one here and the othe there

Meanwhie there is a soution which woud aow thingsto be fixed: there is one instace in which one coud findonesef in front of he woman absoutey facetoface withher and then see her refection here The condition is thatthe mirror was obique and receding that is in the bottomeft over there and disppearing i the distance his woudbe possibe of course one coud envisage it but since yousee there the edge of the mrror parae to the marbepane which is at the edge of the picture here you cannotadmit tha the mirror runs diagonay down tere andcosequenty one has to admit two paces for the painter

But something ese must be added You see here therefection of a figure which is about to speak to te womanIt must therefore be assumed that in this pace which must

be occupied by the painter is someone whose refection ishere [in the upperright corner) Or if there is someonein front of he woman speaking t her and speaking toher as cosey as we see here there woud necessariyhave been on the womans face on her white throat andequay on the marbe something Uke a shado There isnothing the ighting comes fu shot striking without anyobstace or cover whatsoever the whoe of the womansbody and the marbe so for what has been refected ere

[ie the mae figure in the upper rght corner] there musthae been someone and yet in order to have the ighting

ike this [on the womans face and the arbe surfacethere must have been nobody Therefore aong with thecentre and right inconsistency you have te resent orabsent inconsistency

ou te me again that this is perhaps not fundamenta thatthis pace at once empty and occupied is perhaps the paceof the painter and when Manet has in this way eft emptythe space in front of the woman and then represented heresomeone who ooks at her is it not his own gaze which hehas given the refection here and of whi ch he has indicatedthe absence there? The presence and absence o thepainter hs proximity towards his mode his absence herdstance finay a of this woud be symboised by thatempty space To which respond not at a not at abecause as you see here the face of this figure which onemay suppose is the painter (even though it does not ookike him this face ooks at the waitress from above he hasa punging view onto her and consequenty onto the bar and

if it reay ere the gaze of the painter represented hereor refected here he woud have to if he were currentyspeaking t the woman here see her not as we see her atthe same height he woud have to see her from a pungingview and we woud therefore see the bar from a totaydifferent persective ou see how in reaity te viewer andthe painter are at the same height as the waitress perhapseven a itte beow her hence the very sma distance thatthere is between the edge of the marbe and the ege of

78 Mihel Foucaut Oj P 79


37/38

Ithe mio. The dstance is very compessed because teeis an ascending view and not at al ths punging vew which

is ndated hee.

You have theefoe, thee systems of incompatibility: thepainte must be hee and he must be thee; he mut havesomeon hee and he must have no-one thee thee is adescending gaze and thee is an ascending gaze his tplempossbility wheeby we know hee we must placeouseves to see the spectacle as we see it this exclusion ifyou w o evey stabe and defined pace whee we ocatethe viewe s evdenty one o the fundamenta popeties

of this pictue and explans at once the enchantment andthe maaise that one feel n looking at t Whle a classcapainting by its system of lines o pespective of vanshingpoint etc ad assigned to the viewe and to the paintea cetain pecise place ied cnstant fom whee thespectacle was seen so that in looking at a pictue one veycealy saw om whee it was seen f i was fom aboveo fm below fom an angle o fom opposite Hee onthe contay in a ptue lke this one o in any case in thsoe it is not possibe to know whee the painte as placedhimse in ode to paint the pictue as he has done it andwhee we must pace ourseves n orde to see a spectacesuch as this And you see hat wth ths last technqueManet plays wth the pictue's popety of being not in theeast a nomative space wheeby the epesentation fiess o fies te vewe to a point a uniue point fom whichto ook. The pctue appeas Like a space n fot of whichand y appot wit which one can ove aound the vewe

mobe befoe the pctue eal ight stkng head onvetcas and hoizontals pepetualy doubled suppession

of depth So you see the canvas in whch thee is somethingeal ateial n some ways physial s about to apeaand to play with all its popeties n epesentation.

, .

Manet cetanly dd not invent nonepesentative paintingbecause eveythng n Manet is pesentative but hemade a epesentatona pay of the fundamental mateialeeents of the canvas He was theefoe inventing if youike the pictue-obect the painting-obect' and thisno doubt was the undamental condition so that fnallyone day we can get d of epesentation itsef and alowspace to play with ts pue and simple popeties tsmateia popeties

INDEX

A M

f


38/38

A

rhive theme o 15

B

bkgunds 57-8Baaie Geges 7-9

Litertu nd Evil 8Bufn, Cme de 3

C

Caaggi 58ssicl ad.in 29-30 78

u 68gng 58-9 60 68

ussi din 68n Manes wks 28

Cuue, Tms 33

D

Dwi, Ces 3Te De f e Au" 3Deeuze Gies 2Ded, Jques disuiiy 23Dump Mae 7umi Geges 8

FFaube Guse 45Fu Mie

Cchalgi du soi 0Hitoi d l fli Le mot t s choss 2 9'Le N sufe

Fed Sgnd 3

G

GSint Fnci Giving His Mntl

to Poo Mn 70Gupe dnfmin su es Pisns 9

H

eepi 7-8 9

Impenism 28Inges, en Auguse Dminique

Potit of ountss

d'Hussonvill 73

K

Kadnky Wassy 44Kee u 2

L

iSauss Caude 8pi uen 0igng in Mnes ws 4 28 30 32, 79

Th Blcony 67-7; ig2A B t th Foli-Bg

745 77 fig3Th Fif 56-9 ig9unchon on th Gss 603 g0Olympi 63-6 g

yd, enFans

M

Mge Re 2L Blcon d Mnt 7

Mm Spane 5Maux, And 5Mne, Eduad

Agntuil 445 47 g5Th Blcony 5 677 ig2A B t th FoliBg 56 8 32729 ig3Th Excution of Mximilin 3842 74 ig3Th Fif 56-9 fg9In th Gnhous 469 62, 7 fig6Lunchon on th Gs 2, 623, 7 fig0Th Mkd Bll t th Op 38 39 4274 fg2Music in th Tuilis 325 figym 1 18 19 636 fig1Th Pot of Bodux 42-4 g4Sintz Sttion 52-6, 68; g8aining 33Th Witss 495 53 54 fig7

Mx Ka 3Masaccio

Th Tibut Mony 50meiy, pue as 4, 6 293 9

s 9 735Mndian Pe 44

N

Nee, Fiedi 2

p

pii sm 9

s

Se enPau 9sae n Manes wks 39, 42spe n Mnes wks 4, 6 30 3355 789

Agntuil 44-5 47 fig5Th Blcony 678 ig2A B t th oli-Bg 749 g3Th Excution of Mximilin 3842, 74 ig3

Th Fif 578 fig9n th Gnhous 469 62 g6Th Mskd Bll t th Op 358 39 4274 fg2Music in th Tuilis 325 fgTh Pot of Bodux 424; ig4Sint z Sttion 52-6 68 ig8Th s 49-5 53 54 g:7

suusm

iin

Vnus of Ubino 65unisia 9

V

Vy Pau 5Veue Dieg

L Mnins 2iewe in Mnes wks 4, 58 30, 32

A B t th Folis-Bg 729 fig3

Documents

Manet and the Object of Painting