Depth: body and colour in Merleau-Ponty and Delaunay

Abstract

This article aims to establish the relationship between the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the artist Robert Delaunay regarding the corporeality and visibility of the work of art. These notions are developed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his text The eye and the spirit together with the theory of inobjective art of Robert Delaunay, expressed in From cubism to inobjective art. Moreover, Merleau-Ponty explicitly refers to Delaunay in this text, so it is possible to outline a correspondence between both, especially, regarding their aesthetic theories. The thesis that I will try to defend in this article is that the aesthetic developed by Merleau-Ponty is influenced by the writings of Delaunay. In order to accomplish this, I will try to showcase the similarities between both; such as the importance of colour, the profundity of Being expressed in painting or the corporeal and sensational reception and creation of the work of art.