The Deleuze Seminars is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.

“Painting and the Question of Concepts” was an 8-lecture seminar given from late March to early June of 1981. In this seminar, Deleuze critiques aesthetic theories which treat art as ‘representation’, presenting instead his own aesthetic concepts. Many of the concepts and works of art discussed herein also appear in Deleuze’s book published the same year, Francis Bacon-Logique de la sensation (Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation), making “Painting and the Question of Concepts” an important companion to Deleuze’s book.

In the 07 April 1981 lecture, topics of discussion include: the concept ‘chaos-germ’; the white page and the process of writing; the painter and the photo; French artist Gérard Fromanger; Francis Bacon’s painting The Sleepers, the diagram, and some of his interviews; Michelangelo; Mannerism; fact and the pictorial given; Czech painter and graphic artist František (François) Kupka; and the Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad.

This dataset includes: three mp3 recordings of the lecture (total time, 2:28:58), an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, and the complete French transcription of the recorded lecture in both pdf (34 pp) and plain text.

Note: The aggregate audio file has been downsampled.

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Les Séminaires de Deleuze sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.

«La peinture et la question des concepts» était un séminaire de 8 conférences donné de fin mars à début juin 1981. Dans ce séminaire, Deleuze critique les théories esthétiques qui traitent l'art comme «représentation», présentant ses propres concepts esthétiques. Beaucoup de concepts et d'œuvres d'art décrites ici apparaissent également dans le livre de Deleuze publié la même année, Francis Bacon-Logique de la sensation, faisant de «La peinture et de la question des concepts» un important compagnon de le livre de Deleuze.

Dans la lecture du 07 avril 1981, les sujets de discussion comprennent: la notion «chaos-germe»; la page blanche et le procès d'écriture; le peintre et la photo; l'artiste français Gérard Fromanger; la peinture de Francis Bacon les dormeurs, le diagramme et certaines de ses entretiens; Michel-Ange; Maniérisme; le fait et le donné pictural; le peintre et artiste graphique tchèque František (François) Kupka; et l'écrivain polonais-britannique Joseph Conrad.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Gilles Deleuze (2017). Painting and the Question of Concepts: Lecture 2, 07 April 1981. Purdue University Research Repository. doi:10.4231/R7PZ571R

  BibTex | EndNote

1. 20th Century French Philosophy
2. Aesthetics
3. Art History
4. Audio Recording
5. Deleuze Recordings
6. Deleuze Seminars
7. Francis Bacon
8. François Kupka
9. Gérard Fromanger
10. Gilles Deleuze
11. Joseph Conrad
12. Michelangelo
13. Painting
14. Philosophy
15. Philosophy and Literature
16. Philosophy (Dept)

This research has been generously supported through a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University.

The description of this dataset is based on the meticulous work of Frédéric Astier, whose Les cours enregistrés de Gilles Deleuze, 1979-1987 has catalogued Deleuze’s seminars for those years.

Special thanks to the family of Gilles Deleuze and the University of Paris 8 for permission to reproduce the material published here.