Frenchfold
@frenchfold.bsky.social
Art director, graphic designer, bibliophile, and the buddy of a great dog.
To this "hidden in the footnotes" theory about what perspective does I'd add the clearer thesis of Brian Rotman. Enlightening in many ways—so Rotman digs into number theory, algebra, gesture, and signs, and not just projective geometry. Short and perfect like that ideal espresso you can't forget.
November 29, 2025 at 2:33 PM
To this "hidden in the footnotes" theory about what perspective does I'd add the clearer thesis of Brian Rotman. Enlightening in many ways—so Rotman digs into number theory, algebra, gesture, and signs, and not just projective geometry. Short and perfect like that ideal espresso you can't forget.
Squire uses Koerner a lot in his book, which (contra the title a little) discusses European thought as a counterpoint to the Ancient. Also good to read with Belting.
November 29, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Squire uses Koerner a lot in his book, which (contra the title a little) discusses European thought as a counterpoint to the Ancient. Also good to read with Belting.
In the German-Anglo-American tradition I think one can go upstream a little to the Reformation, which Koerner (who's book on Bosch and Breugel is also very good) does his excellent Reformation of the Image:
November 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM
In the German-Anglo-American tradition I think one can go upstream a little to the Reformation, which Koerner (who's book on Bosch and Breugel is also very good) does his excellent Reformation of the Image:
I don't disagree with Jay's analysis or the "problematization of vision," only its ad absurdum that somehow the visual is uniquely compromised, and therefore text is reliable. *Of course* there is much more going on (theology, philosophy), but you really get this square in the face in Ellul.
November 29, 2025 at 2:20 PM
I don't disagree with Jay's analysis or the "problematization of vision," only its ad absurdum that somehow the visual is uniquely compromised, and therefore text is reliable. *Of course* there is much more going on (theology, philosophy), but you really get this square in the face in Ellul.
In terms of critique, the book that's cast the longest shadow on me has been Martin Jay's Downcast Eyes, which the late (and great) father of an old friend lent me soon after it came out. It's ironic that, having read it and then forgotten it, I'd unconsciously read all of Jay's sources.
November 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM
In terms of critique, the book that's cast the longest shadow on me has been Martin Jay's Downcast Eyes, which the late (and great) father of an old friend lent me soon after it came out. It's ironic that, having read it and then forgotten it, I'd unconsciously read all of Jay's sources.
A top-drawer history of this thread in thinking about art (and a lot else besides). Well written.
Not sure that Vischer & co. really answered just how we're moved by art and the world, but there are glimmers of a solution. David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese would take this up again in the 2000s.
Not sure that Vischer & co. really answered just how we're moved by art and the world, but there are glimmers of a solution. David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese would take this up again in the 2000s.
November 28, 2025 at 3:10 PM
A top-drawer history of this thread in thinking about art (and a lot else besides). Well written.
Not sure that Vischer & co. really answered just how we're moved by art and the world, but there are glimmers of a solution. David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese would take this up again in the 2000s.
Not sure that Vischer & co. really answered just how we're moved by art and the world, but there are glimmers of a solution. David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese would take this up again in the 2000s.
Lee is an unsung pioneer of thinking about art. What can feel like arrogance in Wölfflin in Lee is earnest. Kenny's essay at the front is great.
There's a whole set of rabbit warrens labeled "Einfühlung" to be explored here. Lee was very familiar with this thinking, but she also went her own way.
There's a whole set of rabbit warrens labeled "Einfühlung" to be explored here. Lee was very familiar with this thinking, but she also went her own way.
November 28, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Lee is an unsung pioneer of thinking about art. What can feel like arrogance in Wölfflin in Lee is earnest. Kenny's essay at the front is great.
There's a whole set of rabbit warrens labeled "Einfühlung" to be explored here. Lee was very familiar with this thinking, but she also went her own way.
There's a whole set of rabbit warrens labeled "Einfühlung" to be explored here. Lee was very familiar with this thinking, but she also went her own way.
BTW, although this book is excellent, it's not racy, as much as Bluesky might think so. Though is it apt that Titian's Sacred and Profane Love is labeled adult content? Or not.
November 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
BTW, although this book is excellent, it's not racy, as much as Bluesky might think so. Though is it apt that Titian's Sacred and Profane Love is labeled adult content? Or not.
Cruz-Diez's art, if you've ever seen it, is unforgettable, but, as is common with artists (i.e. not the cartoon idea the culture has of them you get, say, in shoddy newspaper journalism), he's a profound and enlightening thinker—in this case on colour and what it can do.
November 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Cruz-Diez's art, if you've ever seen it, is unforgettable, but, as is common with artists (i.e. not the cartoon idea the culture has of them you get, say, in shoddy newspaper journalism), he's a profound and enlightening thinker—in this case on colour and what it can do.
These were written for Elle, much like Barthes' essays in Mythologies were written for Vogue. While not occasionally you wish she had been given a lot more space, this book is like a card catalogue in a well-stocked university library: each essay branches out further, and none repeat.
November 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
These were written for Elle, much like Barthes' essays in Mythologies were written for Vogue. While not occasionally you wish she had been given a lot more space, this book is like a card catalogue in a well-stocked university library: each essay branches out further, and none repeat.
Covers the waterfront very well. Gage is in here at the end, but then so is the Bridget Riley.Baylor's chapter on the colour mechanism of the eye is very helpful.
November 28, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Covers the waterfront very well. Gage is in here at the end, but then so is the Bridget Riley.Baylor's chapter on the colour mechanism of the eye is very helpful.
A colour sidebar: of course there's Itten and Albers (both very useful), but there's also...John Gage: everything you wanted to know about the history of colour. Well okay, there's a lot more out there, but this is a slice of very dense cake.
November 28, 2025 at 2:13 PM
A colour sidebar: of course there's Itten and Albers (both very useful), but there's also...John Gage: everything you wanted to know about the history of colour. Well okay, there's a lot more out there, but this is a slice of very dense cake.
As a sort of answer to Wölfflin, though through (collective) body image and fashion. You'll never look at portraits the same way. And, just a darn good book!
November 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
As a sort of answer to Wölfflin, though through (collective) body image and fashion. You'll never look at portraits the same way. And, just a darn good book!
This is scholarship from the past—a telos to history (Renaissance good, Baroque bad), a lot of opinions standing in for argument, but also a deep familiarity with the buildings and the contemporary literature—but it does ask a solid question: why do styles change?
November 28, 2025 at 1:52 PM
This is scholarship from the past—a telos to history (Renaissance good, Baroque bad), a lot of opinions standing in for argument, but also a deep familiarity with the buildings and the contemporary literature—but it does ask a solid question: why do styles change?
This is a super interesting account of a super interesting topic. And, it gives us an example of some of the many ways that images are used as tools to do more than demonstrate or "express".
November 23, 2025 at 2:48 AM
This is a super interesting account of a super interesting topic. And, it gives us an example of some of the many ways that images are used as tools to do more than demonstrate or "express".
In his two Cinema books, Deleuze, among other things, takes Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic and makes it his own in a useful way, but, being Deleuze, he is revising, changing, and adapting as he goes. Deamer makes the whole schema make sense, without over-simplifying.
November 23, 2025 at 2:25 AM
In his two Cinema books, Deleuze, among other things, takes Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic and makes it his own in a useful way, but, being Deleuze, he is revising, changing, and adapting as he goes. Deamer makes the whole schema make sense, without over-simplifying.
A good overview of the visual history photography, but it's also peppered with technical chapters about the evolution of the camera which are worth reading all by themselves.
November 23, 2025 at 2:15 AM
A good overview of the visual history photography, but it's also peppered with technical chapters about the evolution of the camera which are worth reading all by themselves.
Fairground portraits, Surrealism, photos from trains — there's so many facets of photography considered in these essays.
November 23, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Fairground portraits, Surrealism, photos from trains — there's so many facets of photography considered in these essays.
This is a great encapsulation of everything that Arnheim is good at. And it makes you yearn, like the writing of John Dreyfus—the print scholar and book designer—of that period where scholars wrote so elegantly.
November 23, 2025 at 2:08 AM
This is a great encapsulation of everything that Arnheim is good at. And it makes you yearn, like the writing of John Dreyfus—the print scholar and book designer—of that period where scholars wrote so elegantly.
Hustvedt is excellent at everything you need an art writer to be good at: careful observation and careful research, but she is also always honest about herself and her smallest reactions. She reminds me a bit of the great Vernon Lee in this regard.
November 23, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Hustvedt is excellent at everything you need an art writer to be good at: careful observation and careful research, but she is also always honest about herself and her smallest reactions. She reminds me a bit of the great Vernon Lee in this regard.
One of Gestalt psychology's great successes was in taking early work on visual psychophysics and extending and generalizing it to think about patterns of human visual perception. Add the Kuleshov effect you have a how-to manual for what works.
November 23, 2025 at 12:36 AM
One of Gestalt psychology's great successes was in taking early work on visual psychophysics and extending and generalizing it to think about patterns of human visual perception. Add the Kuleshov effect you have a how-to manual for what works.
This is a marvellous essay. And, while I agree with the thesis, it's also takes belief and uses it to talk about thinkers who, like Latour, who you wouldn't necessarily think of right away in connection with photography. It's like a cross-section of ideas.
November 23, 2025 at 12:29 AM
This is a marvellous essay. And, while I agree with the thesis, it's also takes belief and uses it to talk about thinkers who, like Latour, who you wouldn't necessarily think of right away in connection with photography. It's like a cross-section of ideas.
Like Flusser, Sontag is skeptical of the photograph. We think of her as canon now but when I was in school (in the lower Devonian) Sontag was pooh-pooed as an outsider, but to read her is to have all your priors chipped away, one perfect declarative sentence after another.
November 23, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Like Flusser, Sontag is skeptical of the photograph. We think of her as canon now but when I was in school (in the lower Devonian) Sontag was pooh-pooed as an outsider, but to read her is to have all your priors chipped away, one perfect declarative sentence after another.
This is a smart critique that uses a simple theoretical distinction — the event of photography versus the photographic event — to broaden out the whole question of how a photograph happens. Azoulay uses this to examine photojournalism, but it's super useful for all sorts of photographic situations.
November 18, 2025 at 11:43 PM
This is a smart critique that uses a simple theoretical distinction — the event of photography versus the photographic event — to broaden out the whole question of how a photograph happens. Azoulay uses this to examine photojournalism, but it's super useful for all sorts of photographic situations.
An ethnology of how the news photos that you see online are produced by looking at the agency middlemen.
November 18, 2025 at 11:39 PM
An ethnology of how the news photos that you see online are produced by looking at the agency middlemen.