Titre : Abstraction in representations of the living, semantic and phenomenological clarifications 

Auteurs : Julien Bernard,  

Revue : Art and Science 

Numéro : Special issue</br> 

Volume : 5 

Date : 2021/07/21 

DOI : 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2021.0715 

ISSN : 2515-8767 

Résumé : In this article, we reactivate the original meaning of the word "abstraction", in order to put in light the complexity and the richness of all the mental operations which underlie the artistic representations of the living. Indeed, the notion of abstraction underwent at the beginning of the XXth century a violent mutation which uprooted it from its philosophical origins, at the time when the so-called "abstract art" was instituted. In order to deconstruct the new sterile meaning given to abstraction, which makes it the so-called opposite of figuration, we will first put into perspective a series of texts, signed by some of the founding fathers of abstract art, in order to relive this crucial moment in history when the meaning of the term changed. Then, we will return to the original meanings that Plato and Aristotle had wanted to give to abstraction, and to the philosophical problems that motivated it. By means of a phenomenological analysis, we will show that these problems have in no way lost their vigor, but can be found again in the modern and contemporary period, concerning the representations of the living, under a new and amplified form by the complexification of the forms of detours of the literal figuration. 

Éditeur : ISTE OpenScience