georges didi huberman, confronti... - lensbased.net

It is the curse and the blessing of Kunstwissenschaft that itsobjects necessarily lay claim to an understanding that is notexclusively historical. . . . This demand is, as I said, both a curseand a blessing. A blessing, because it keeps Kunstwissenschaft inconstant tension, ceaselessly provoking methodological reflection,and, above all, continually reminding us that a work of artis a work of art and not just any historical object. A curse,because it must introduce into scholarship an uncertainty and arift that are difficult to bear, and because the effort to uncovergeneral precepts has often led to results that are either irreconcilablewith scientific method or seem to violate the uniquenessof the individual work of art.—Erwin Panofsky, ‘‘Der Begriff des Kunstwollens’’ (1920)Not-knowledge strips bare. This proposition is the summit, butshould be understood as follows: it strips bare, hence I see whatknowledge previously had hidden; but if I see, I know. In effect,I know, but what I knew, not-knowledge strips it barer still.—Georges Bataille, L’Expérience intérieure (1943)