The Glasgow School of Art

Michael Newman

The Fascination of the Pervert: Bellmer, Klossloski, Sade, Blanchot and Zurn

This lecture will consider the fascination of the pervert as a legitimate relation to the work of art. However, since the image or object of such fascination is singular or absolute, such a relation of subject to object is an 'impossible' one. How does this work itself out in visual terms? What is its relation to language? And is its character limited by the desire of the other?

Michael Newman is a Professor of Art Writing at Goldsmiths College and teaches at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He has written extensively on contemporary art, including books on Richard Prince, Jeff Wall, Seth Proce, and Anthony Gormley. He co-edited Rewriting Conveptual Art (1999) and The State of Art Critiscism (2007). He has published among others on Richard Deacon, Tacita Dean, Alfred Jensen, Hanne Darboven, Joelle Tuerlinkx, Dara Birnbaum, Agnes Martin and Hilary Lloyd, as well as thematic essays on the wound, the horizon, contingency, materiality, the trance and nonsense.