Exploring the Invisibility of Conformable Shapes: a Vulnerability Study of Didi-Huberman's "Not-knowledge" Images

Journal: Arts Studies and Criticism DOI: 10.32629/asc.v5i5.3092

Hanyu Guo

School of Arts and Humanities, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing 400000, China

Abstract

The context of the term "iconology" is continuously expanding today, while discussions around the traditional paradigm of iconography are rooted in the discourse framework of "Ernst Cassirer—Erwin Panofsky—Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich". However, in the history of academia, interest in the study of Warburg does not seem to have always been sustained. Until the end of the 20th century, through the retrospective exploration by figures like Georges Didi-Huberman and Giorgio Agamben, Aby Warburg's "Nameless Science" was finally brought back from the margins of art research. If this traditional paradigm presents the viewer with an image in an intuitive and easily understandable way, directly affecting the knowledge on the surface level of the artistic image, thereby making the visible readable, then beyond the stable equation formed by seeing and knowing, how should we define the "Not-knowledge" part that breaks through the simple formal level? Beyond the stability equation, the emergence of the "Not-knowledge" image effect is naturally a theoretical issue that requires clarification. Therefore, this article takes the questioning of linear narrative and the appearance of "cracks" in visual images as fundamental features of Didi-Huberman's study of "Not-knowledge" images. It focuses on the relationship between the intuitive presentation and the readability of the image, exploring how the ontology of Didi-Huberman's non-explicit visual elements, that is, the "Not-knowledge" image, generates its effectiveness. This analysis is primarily conducted from two perspectives: one is to critique and question the iconographic paradigm as the originating theory, and the other is to construct the emergence and manifestation of the ontological efficacy of "Not-knowledge" images as a subsequent theory. At the end of the article, the aim is to reflect on the phenomenon of "displacement" in art history research, which arises from neglecting the image itself, through a method of unveiling. The goal is to explore the insights that the "Not-knowledge" image theory can offer to the practical research in art history.

Keywords

Georges Didi-Huberman; rend; presentability; "not-knowledge" image; image efficacy

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