Pre-objective Depth in Merleau-Ponty and Jackson Pollock

• Published in: Research in phenomenology Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 49 - 70
• Main Author: Schreyach, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Brill 2013; Brill Academic Publishers, Inc
• Subjects: automatism; Epistemology. Philosophy of science. Theory of knowledge; intention; interpretation; Jackson Pollock; Maurice Merleau-Ponty; Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1908-1961); phenomenology; Philosophy; Phenomenology; Knowledge theory; Maurice Merleau-Ponty; interpretation; automatism; Cognition; Hermeneutics; Jackson Pollock; intention
• ISSN: 0085-5553; 1569-1640; 0085-5553
• DOI: 10.1163/15691640-12341243

Abstract Pollock's drip technique generated certain unconventional representational possibilities, including the possibility of expressing the pre-reflective involvement of an embodied, intentional subject in a perceptual world. Consequently, Pollock's art can be understood to explore or investigate the pre-objective conditions of reflective and intellectual consciousness. His painting-here I consider Number 1, 1949-motivates viewers to consider the relationship between intention and meaning as it appears in both primordial and reflective dimensions of experience. The account proceeds in three stages. First, I review key features of Merleau-Ponty's concept of the pre-objective and attempt to clarify the reflexive nature of investigating it by considering his analysis of Paul Cézanne's technique. Second, I consider Pollock's technique and some critical responses to it, while analyzing some of its implications for a notion of pictorial address. Finally, I examine the perceptual effects of Number 1, 1949 and interpret them, following Merleau-Ponty's lead, in view of a revised understanding of the relationship between automatism and intention.