Description: Originally written for an exhibition Nancy curated at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon in 2007, the text addresses the medium of drawing in light of form in its formation, of form as a formative force, opening drawing to questions of pleasure and desire.
Brief description: Philip Armstrong is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University.
Review Quotes: What is it about drawing that might attract a philosopher's eye? Many things no doubt but not least, there is the (literally) unthinkable movement by which something begins to take shape. Jean-Luc Nancy's approach in The Pleasure in Drawing moves beyond art-historical categories and conceptual schemas to touch on precisely that: he considers the 'formative force' of drawing, not in terms of its formal achievement but in terms of the pleasures afforded by its constant beginning--pleasures of attraction, sense, permanent interruption, tension and intensity. A book full of dazzling insights, imaginative curves and provocative renewals.-----Sarah Clift, University of King's College