The Picture in Question: Mark Tansey and the Ends of Representation

by Mark C. Taylor

A rich exploration of the possibilities of representation after Modernism, Mark Taylor's new study charts the logic and continuity of Mark Tansey's painting by considering the philosophical ideas behind Tansey's art. Taylor examines how Tansey uses structuralist and poststructuralist thought as well as catastrophe, chaos, and complexity theory to create paintings that please the eye while provoking the mind. Taylor's clear accounts of thinkers ranging from Plato, Kant, and Hegel to Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, and de Man will be an invaluable contribution to students and teachers of art.

Genres: Art, Philosophy, Nonfiction

151 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1999

About the author

Mark C. Taylor, Ph.D. (Religious Studies, Harvard University, 1973; B.A., Wesleyan University, 1968), is a philosopher of religion who chaired the Department of Religion at Columbia University 2007–2015. Previously, he was Cluett Professor of Humanities at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts), where he began his teaching career in 1973.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Mark C. Taylor’s The Picture in Question: Mark Tansey and the Ends of Representation felt a bit like stepping into a maze built out of ideas - some brilliant, some so tangled in theory that I had to stop and reread them several times.

The book explores the philosophical and aesthetic questions behind Mark Tansey’s paintings, focusing on how his art blurs the boundaries between representation and reality, image and meaning. It’s one of those texts that feels dense at first, but the more you sit with it, the more it unfolds into something genuinely fascinating.

Taylor’s writing style is very academic... sometimes too academic. There were definitely moments where the language felt unnecessarily heavy, as if the point was being hidden behind layers of jargon. Still, when I could see through the fog of terminology, what emerged were some incredibly sharp insights.

In the end, I came away from the book feeling both challenged and inspired. It’s not an easy read, but it doesn’t need to be. It asks you to think, to look again, and to question the way we interpret meaning in images. And for all its complexity, that’s what makes it so rewarding. Even with its moments of unnecessary complexity, The Picture in Question gave me a deeper appreciation for the strange, brilliant relationship between philosophy and art.