UDC

141.319.8

DOI

10.37482/2687-1505-V410

Authors

Anna I. Satsukevich
Postgraduate Student, Philosophical Anthropology Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University (address: Lomonosovskiy prosp. 27, korp. 4, Leninskie gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia).
e-mail: AU10029@yandex.ru, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0218-5902

Abstract

The article attempts to prove a thesis according to which the general cultural Western phenomenon of death in philosophy – that of history (Hegel, Marx, Kojève), subject (Foucault), God (Nietzsche), substance (relativism, nihilism), author (Barthes, Foucault) and human (Deleuze, Braidotti, Land, Negarestani) – is symmetrical to the transition from the mode of phenomenological consideration of consciousness to the experience of abstract art overcoming finitude. Abstractionism expresses the “artistic model of death”, the possibility of the truth of finitude in the era of the “end of history”. The purpose of this article is to analyse abstractionism as the limit of the phenomenology of consciousness, where aesthetic forms define the overcoming of the finitude of human existence. Finitude in abstractionist creation ceases to mean limitation, opening up a pure possibility of death. The proposed conceptualization of death through abstractionism and phenomenology reproduces a paradoxical gap. On the one hand, it preserves the finitude of “non-objective” art, which lends itself to phenomenological consideration by revealing the eidetic level of the work. On the other hand, it paves the way for the transgressive function of abstract art, demonstrating the finitude of phenomenology itself, since death is not a phenomenon. Thus, a model of “fading life”, or “eternal life” of death and large narratives in cultural dominions, is reproduced: a never-ending series of deaths in philosophy and art is recreated, which is reflected in phenomenological thought. At the same time, the death of the subject, substance and the end of history has already happened, which is manifested in the ultimate forms of expression used by abstractionism. This speaks of the “symmetry” or “correlativity” of two processes, namely, the development of post-Kantian philosophical thought within the framework of phenomenology and the development of abstract art.

Keywords

phenomenology of death, finitude, abstract art, contemporary art, aesthetics

References

1. Plato. Fedr [Phaedrus]. Plato. Sobranie Sochineniy [Collected Works]. Vol. 2. Moscow, 1993, pp. 135–191.
2. Gusserl’ E. Idei k chistoy fenomenologii i fenomenologicheskoy filosofii. Kniga pervaya [Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy. Book One]. Moscow, 2009. 489 p.
3. Heidegger M. Sein und Zeit. Tübingen, 1993 445 p. (Russ. ed.: Khaydegger M. Bytie i vremya. Moscow, 1997. 451 p.).
4. Chanyshev A. Traktat o nebytii [A Treatise on Non-Being]. Filosofiya i obshchestvo, 2005, no. 1, pp. 5–15.
5. Rostova N. Izgnanie Boga. Problema sakral’nogo v filosofii cheloveka [The Expulsion of God. The Problem of the Sacred in Philosophical Anthropology]. Moscow, 2017. 432 p.
6. Husserl E. Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass. Dritter Teil: 1929–1935. The Hague, 1973. 741 p.
7. Kovalevskiy A.A. Transformatsiya smerti v iskusstve [Transformation of Death in Art]. Vestnik Omskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Gumaniarnye issledovaniya, 2016, no. 3, pp. 15–18.
8. Schütz A. Izbrannoe: Mir, svetyashchiysya smyslom [Selected Works: A World Radiating Meaning]. Moscow, 2004. 1054 p.
9. Girenok F. More grez [A Sea of Dreams]. Available at: https://fedor-girenok.ru/more-grez/ (accessed: 4 August 2024).
10. Gadamer H.-G. Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Tübingen, 1960. 486 p. (Russ. ed.: Gadamer Kh.-G. Istina i metod: Osnovy filosofskoy germenevtiki. Moscow, 1988. 700 p.).
11. Groys B.E. Filosof posle kontsa istorii [Philosopher After the End of History]. Uskol’zayushchiy kontekst. Russkaya filosofiya v postsovetskikh usloviyakh [The Elusive Context. Russian Philosophy in Post-Soviet Conditions]. Moscow, 2002, pp. 147–160.
12. Yuk Hui. Recursivity and Contingency. London, 2019. 337 p. (Russ. ed.: Yuk Khuey. Rekursivnost’ i kontingentnost’. Мoscow, 2020. 298 p.).
13. Ukhin M. Sosushchestvovanie metafizik, ili Real’noe (ne) v zone dostupa: sposobny li my otkazat’sya ot refleksii? [Coexistence of Metaphysical Systems: The (Not Quite) Reality in the Public Domain: Can We Win Through Reflection?]. Eshche odin, 2024, no. 1, pp. 231–266.
14. Kuznetsov V. Postneklassicheskoe edinstvo mira [Post-Non-Classical Unity of the World]. Moscow, 2023. 461 p.
15. Chalmers D.J. What Is Conceptual Engineering and What Should It Be? Inquiry, 2020, vol. 63, pp. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2020.1817141
16. Danto A.C. The End of Art: A Philosophical Defense. Hist. Theory, 1998, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1111/0018-2656.721998072
17. Danto A.C., Horowitz G., Huhn T. The Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and the Ends of Taste. London, 2013. 240 p.
18. Deleuze G. I. Platon i simulyakr [I. Plato and the Simulacrum]. Deleuze G. Logika smysla [The Logic of Sense]. Moscow, 1998, pp. 329–346.
19. Nietzsche F. Volya k vlasti. Opyt pereotsenki vsekh tsennostey [The Will to Power. Revaluation of All Values]. Moscow, 2005. 880 p.
20. Baudrillard J. Sovershennoe prestuplenie. Zagovor iskusstva [The Perfect Crime. The Conspiracy of Art]. Moscow, 2019. 347 p.
21. Krivtsun O.A., Bespalov O.V., Proklov I.N., Belikova M.A., Florkovskaya A.K., Lukina G.U., Savenko S.I., Dutsev M.V., Sal’nikova E.V., Stupin S.S., Karpov A.V., Mut’ya N.N. Vital’nost’ iskusstva: podkhody k issledovaniyu [Vitality of the Art: Approaches to Research]. Khudozhestvennaya kul’tura, 2021, no. 1, pp. 304–353.
22. Speranskaya N. [Anti]dukhovnost’ iskusstva. Na podstupakh k novomu metodu [Anti]Spirituality of Art. Towards a New Method]. Evola J. Abstraktnoe iskusstvo [Abstract Art]. Moscow, 2012, pp. 5–16.
23. Mazin V. Nereal’naya real’nost’: (f)akt reprezentatsii [The Unreal Reality: A F (Act) of Representation]. Memento vivere, ili Pomni o smerti [Memento vivere, or Remember That You Die]. Moscow, 2006, pp. 196–208.
24. Blauberg I.I. Istoki bergsonizma. Filosofiya Feliksa Ravessona [The Origins of Bergsonism. The Philosophy of Félix Ravaisson]. Moscow, 2014. 187 p.
25. Bergson A. Neposredstvennye dannye soznaniya [The Immediate Data of Consciousness]. Bergson A. Tvorcheskaya evolyutsiya. Materiya i pamyat’ [Creative Evolution. Matter and Memory]. Moscow, 1999. p. 781.
26. Kant I. Sochineniya. T. 3. Kritika chistogo razuma [Works. Vol. 3. The Critique of Pure Reason]. Moscow, 1964. 799 p.
27. Girenok F.I. Kant, Khaydegger i problema metafiziki [Kant, Heidegger and the Problem of Metaphysics]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Ser.: Filosofiya, 2013, no. 2, pp. 86–97.
28. Heidegger M. Kant i problema metafiziki [Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics]. Moscow, 1997. 143 p.
29. Merleau-Ponty M. Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris, 1945. 531 p. (Russ. ed.: Merlo-Ponti M. Fenomenologiya vospriyatiya. St. Petersburg, 1999. 606 p.).
30. Meillassoux Q. Après la finitude: Essai sur la nécessité de la contingence. Paris, 2006. 189 p. (Russ. ed.: Meyyasu K. Posle konechnosti: esse o neobkhodimosti kontingentnosti. Yekaterinburg, 2015. 195 p.).