Q
Qoeleth
Guest
So, “true” art discloses something “true” about Being? You mention Being at some moment… Do you feel that Being changes in its nature or quality? Is the truth of art to do with its contemporaneity, it plausibility as a real expression in its social and historical context (even if the art itself depicts something outside of that context)?Painting, music, poetry, drama and all art are “truthful” in a deep sense - these “productions” disclose worlds. Take Heidegger’s analysis of Van Gogh’s painting of a pair (?) of old leather work boots. The painting discloses, according to Heidegger, the world of a German peasant woman in late autumn harvesting potatoes (I think).
I know Derrida has a problem with this analysis because Heidegger argues that the painting discloses “truth”. And Derrida has his own peculiar take on “truth”. But we can’t get into that here. And Derrida’s problem is not simply whether the painting depicts a pair of shoes.
Derrida strives to subvert any definitive disclosure.
On the contrary, I think art displays truth. World disclosure is a nice way of summarizing such truth.
We have to be careful not to think of world disclosure as representation of a fact or a particular object (as you might find in a careless photo). No, art shows us how it is with Being at some historical moment. As such, art does not express a self or a feeling - does not “express” anythingl that is “inside” someone. It’s a matter of a world that is already “outside”, you might even say, “transcendent” in the sense that any particular individual, e.g., peasant woman, is embedded in it. “Transcendent” here does not any straightforward theological connotations).
Is there a work of art which can be identified as a metaphysical lie?