Abstract

When Gadamer speaks of the “unavoidability” or “uncircumventability” [Unhintergehbarkeit] of art,Cf. Hans-Georg Gadamer . there are at least two claims involved: he has in mind both the concrete autonomy of a given artwork—its independence from systems of signification and representation—as well as the crucial importance that art bears for any account of human understanding. Yet even if this central significance remains a distinct concern and peculiar inheritance of the continental philosophical tradition as such, it still remains unclear what it would even mean for the question of art to be properly raised, let alone resolved. If anything, art’s significance currently lies in its continuing questionability.In Between Word and Image, Dennis Schmidt attunes the reader to this questionability and ends up bolstering the validity of Gadamer’s claims, broadly carrying the latter’s legacy forward in a number of ways: by extending the inquiry concerning the ontology of the artwork into ..