Abstract
The problem of pictorial representation will be discussed here largely by reference to one single movement, the original cubism of Picasso and Braque. The crucial importance of this movement in the history of modern art is generally recognized, but its status is still puzzling and even controversial. This puzzle centers precisely on the relation of cubist art to the idea of representation. One’s first impulse is to think of cubism as a step, perhaps the most important step, in the development of modern painting towards increasingly complete abstraction. A look at the apparently unrecognizable shapes of many cubist paintings seems to be enough to confirm this interpretation.
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References
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Its main architects include Richard Montague, Saul Kripke, and David Kaplan. It grew from the semantics of modal logics developed by Stig Kanger, Jaakko Hintikka, and Saul Kripke. On the development and nature of possible-worlds semantics, see also Jaakko Hintikka, ‘Carnap’s Semantics in Retrospect’, Synthese 25 (1972–73) 372–397, reprinted above as Chapter 5 of this volume.
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Cf., e. g., Christopher Gray, Cubist Aesthetic Theories, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1953, pp. 45–46, 65–67, 143–145 and passim.
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Hintikka, J. (1975). Concept as Vision: On the Problem of Representation in Modern Art and in Modern Philosophy. In: Hintikka, J. (eds) Rudolf Carnap, Logical Empiricist. Synthese Library, vol 73. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1807-4_11
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