Michel Serres

Über Malerei (On Painting)
Vermeer, La Tour, Turner
VOLUME 130

Painting as a Practice of Translation

Though traditional science still relies on the conviction that information remains stable in the face of any translation strategy, actual translations continue producing variations in all areas of cultural life. In these three essays (source: Hermès III. La traduction, 1974), translated into German for the first time by Michael Bischoff, Michel Serres approaches painting as an interpretation of literature. Using three examples—Jan Vermeer, Georges de La Tour, and William Turner—Serres develops a radical idea of art  reception as a philosophically imbued and associatively interpretive mode of perception. The concrete image becomes the starting point for contemplative observation. Looking at art is thus a form of translation as varied as painting itself. This model of reflecting on art contributed significantly to the development of a free, associative approach to the visual arts.

With an epilog by the author, art historian, and media scholar Peter Bexte. Translated from French by Michael Bischoff.

Michel Serres (b. 1930 in Agen; d. 2019 in Vincennes) was a mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of the history of science at the Sorbonne in Paris and  also taught at Stanford University in California. He was elected to the Académie française in 1990.