Tactile Vision: The Work of Giuseppe Penone

<p>This dissertation considers the early works of the Italian artist Giuseppe Penone. I argue that his works from the 1960s and 1970s are especially distinct from everything else he has made in the years since. The following chapters will show how descriptions and interpretations of Penone's art from the 1980s and after have been folded back upon his earlier projects. It has become a common practice to consider the early works in light of the later - much to the former's detriment. It is entirely because of this difference, generally unnoted, that I focus on <i>Alpi Marittime</i> [<i>Maritime Alps</i>] from 1968, then follow with a discussion of the first examples in a long series of <i>Alberi</i> [<i>Trees</i>] initiated in 1969. Analyses of two major works from 1970 follow: <i>Rovesciare gli propri occhi</i> [<i>To Reverse One's Eyes</i>], and <i>Svolgere la Propria Pelle</i> [<i>To Unfold One's Skin</i>].</p> <p>These are exemplary works that stand out for their consistent interest in <i>outsidedness</i>, that is, how things (including ourselves) are exposed to the world. With them Penone confronts issues of exteriority and surfaces, the relationship of touch and sight, and the powerful notion that we understand our surroundings because of our embodied actions - that we are touched by the world even before we reach out to touch it, seen by it even as we see. Collectively, the early works are responding to and share in an underlying concern that is strongly phenomenological - or so I will argue. I "bracket off" Penone's early works from his subsequent career because they are different in kind and therefore deserve an alternative approach. What the early works call for is not so much interpretation as mere description: an attentiveness to what has been brought before our eyes. My interest is in considering them on their own terms. I provide an alternative language, one that articulates the works' shared phenomenological concerns and aims not to invoke the subjective or the unseen, but simply to have us see them anew for the kinds of things that they - and we with them - really are.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History of Art

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Pagano, Greer London

Contributors dc:contributor

• Florman, Lisa

• Art History
• Giuseppe Penone

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366111723

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1366111723