Blog 3: Foucault

For this reading, the first word my dictionary and I had to determine was feints. By the end of the reading, I felt like I had been jerked around a little bit – ironically, by the feints of the analysis. Foucault reveals and disproves feints throughout the piece. However, in the revealing stage, I am sold, I am enlightened by the element being discussed, I am.... oh never mind, that was just a feint.

The first feint of the analysis to dupe me was Foucault’s mention of a dark torso and a bright face (3). I was mislead to believe the piece would be rather traditional: light and dark, contrast, movement - dare I say (from my immature art perspective) run of the mill tools of analysis.

A second feint, every character is named and I am so excited to glimpse into their lives, an art history perspective, something that I would be better equipped to enjoy – a story. Page nine, “One must erase proper names...pretend not to know...” Me, “Oh, okay, we’re not going that art history route.”

But I loved the topic he touched on next in his explanation of avoiding proper names. “It is in vain that we say what we see,” is an eloquent statement pointed to arbitrary language (9). In communication classes here at WSU, it is emphasized that language is arbitrary. It’s just a series of symbols (words) that represent referents (objects). The symbol referent dynamic is extremely circular; unless a person can point at an object and then say Tree, how can a person describe a tree? Only with symbols upon symbols, until blue in the face can we attempt to describe an object. Hence, figurative language reigns supreme over literal.

Foucault uses beautiful imagery like “yellow dazzle”, and “like an angel greeting the virgin”, that really bring the analysis some life. Aside from the beyond-fun descriptions, the analysis is a technical operation. I felt like Foucault was leading me, although at times misleading me, through a mysterious puzzle. With his logic he pieces together the clues or puzzle pieces to connect the picture, the painter (outside the pic), the models, and the spectators.