'Transcendental Narcissism' and the Philosophy of Art

The author discusses the question of 'narcissism', specifically understood in the phenomenological works of Merleau-Ponty, in which it denotes a perception that discovers truth within itself, the unexpressed, pre-rational truth of the world as it is, which best captures the process of painting as a work of art. Merleau-Ponty believes that although it evades the claims made by the rationalizing description, the relation between the visible and the invisible generates a linguistic, discursive meaning. In other words, it is possible to speak about art in the language of philosophy and, in addition, to speak well by doing justice to a given work of art, or not. Does the philosophical discourse apply painting as an illustration, or perhaps it unites in a common objective the solution of the mystery of visibility, or discovers within it its own 'silent' reflection? Regardless of the answers we give to these questions, the problem of 'narcissism' - a perception which finds the truth within itself - remains a problem not only of contemporary philosophy but also of contemporary art.