Colouring Philosophy: Appel, Lyotard and Art's Work

Abstract

Colour plays a fundamental role in the philosophical treatment of painting. Colour while it is an essential part of the work of art cannot be divorced from the account of painting within which it is articulated. This paper begins with a discussion of the role of colour in Schelling's conception of art. Nonetheless its primary concern is to develop a critical encounter with Jean-François Lyotard's analysis of the Dutch painter Karel Appel. The limits of Lyotard's writings on painting, which this paper will attribute in part to Lyotard's "empiricism", becomes most apparent in his treatment of colour.

Keywords:

• Jean-François Lyotard
• colour
• painting
• Schelling
• metaphysics of particularity