Painting as ReModel | Dr M. Boman: (...) Damisch, Bois, and October’s Rethinking of Painting

“While most of Hubert Damisch’s major books have been made available in English since the publication of Yve-Alain Bois’ review essay Painting as Model, it nonetheless remains a shame that Fenêtre Jaune Cadmium—the subject of Bois’ review—has not been translated. Although best known as a specialist in Renaissance art, the essays of Fenêtre show how Damisch’s distinct art-theoretical project emerges from his early writings on modernist and post-war painting, phenomenology, and structuralism. This paper argues that Damisch’s writings and Bois’ essay serves as a crux for the October journal. October was at the forefront of the critique against painting during the early 1980s, but the publication of Painting as Model suggests a sea-change in the journal. I shall examine how Damisch’s entwining of phenomenology and structuralism, as a model for October that helped it revise its understanding of painting and for rethinking the relationship between art history and art criticism.“ Au