Painterly Content

Dr Andrew Inkpin (The University of Melbourne)

Abstract:

In this paper I argue that paintings have a type of nonconceptual content which distinguishes them from other kinds of picture, in particular from mechanically produced images. That is, I argue that there is such thing as a specifically painterly kind of representational content. Having first introduced the notion of nonconceptual content and suggested a rationale for applying it to pictures, the paper sets out how nonconceptual content is conceived of by putatively general theories of depiction based on the thought that pictures convey information about what they depict. It  argues that such information-based theories cannot be properly applied to paintings, and outlines an alternative conception of the content of paintings based on Merleau-Ponty’s treatment of painting as an embodied representational activity. I then illustrate this alternative conception’s applicability using an example, before highlighting several of its implications and addressing a couple of obvious
objections.