Abstract

Merleau-Ponty’s abiding interest in the art and the enigmatic person of Paul Cézanne focuses importantly on both the pictorial expression of space, and on the freedom of artistic creation in the face of adversity. Examining these issues in relation to the art of Claude Monet (whom Merleau-Ponty neglected), together with Monet’s status as a precursor of painterly abstraction, one can follow the Merleau-Pontyan “indirect logic of institution” to confront the work of Joan Mitchell, within the parameters of gestural abstraction, so as to consider both her perspective on spatiality and horizon and her artistic trans-substantiation of adversity, focusing on the almost ecstatic intensity of her 1983-1985 series, La grande vallée.