JACQUES DERRIDA THETRUTH IN PAINTING Translated by Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1987 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1987 Printed in the United States of America 03 02 01 0099 98 97 9695 94 67 8 9 10 First published as LA VERITE EN PEINTURE in Paris, © 1978, Flammarion, Paris. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Derrida, Jacques. The truth in painting. Tr anslation of La verite en peinture. Includes index. I. Aesthetics. I. Title. BH39·D45 1987 701'.1'7 ISBN 0-2 2 6-143 24-4 (pbk.) Contents List of Illustrations vii Translators' Preface xiii Passe-Partout 1 1. Parergon 15 I. Lemmata 17 II. The Parergon 37 III. The Sans of the Pure Cut 83 IV. The Colossal 119 2. + R (Into the Bargain) 149 3. Cartouches 183 4. Restitutions 255 Index 383 List of Illustrations Parergon Johannes Kepler, De Nive Sexangula, printer's mark (photo, Flammarion) 25 Lucas Cranach, Lucretia, 1533, Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preus­ sische Kulturbesitz, Gemaldegalerie (photo, Wa lter Stein- kopf) 58 Antonio Fantuzzi, a cryptoportico, 1545 (photo, Flammarion) 60 Master L. D., cryptoporticQ of the grotto in the pinegarden, at Fontainebleau (photo, Flammarion) 62 Antonio Fantuzzi, ornamental panel with empty oval, 1542 - 43 (photo, Flammarion) 65 Antonio Fantuzzi, empty rectangular cartouche, 1544 - 45 (photo, Flammarion) 66 Doorframe, in the style of Louis XIV, anonymous engraving (photo, Roger Viollet) 72 Nicolas Robert, The Tu lip, in Tulia's Garland (photo, Girau- don) 86 Frontispiece to New Drawings of Ornaments, Panels, Carriages, Etc. (photo, Roger Viollet) 99 viii The Truth in Painting Th e Colossus of Rhodes, Gobelins Tapestry, Seventeenth Cen­ tury 123 Antoine Caron, The Massacre of the Triumvirates, The Louvre (photo, Flammarion) 124 Francisco Goya, Th e Colossus, aquatint (photo, Rogert Viol- let) 130 Francisco Goya, The Colossus or Panic, oil; Prado museum (photo, Giraudon) 141 + R (Into the Bargain) Valerio Adami, Study for a Drawingafter Glas by Jacques Derrida, 27 February 1975 153 and 167 Valerio Adami, Study for a Drawingafter Glas by Jacques Derrida, 27 February 1975, graphite pencil; private collection 154 and 168 Valerio Adami, Concerto a quattro mani, 3 I March 1975, graphite pencil 155 and 156 Va lerio Adami, Study for a Drawingafter Glas by Jacques Derrida, 22 May 1975, graphite pencil; private collection 157 Va lerio Adami, Autobiografia, 6 April 1975, graphitepencil 164 Valerio Adami, Elegy for Yo ung Lovers, I April 1975, graphite pencil 165 Valerio Adami, La piscina, 1966, oil on canvas; Schwartz Gallery, Milan (photo, Bacci) 170 Valerio Adami, La meccanica dell 'avven tura, 25 March 1975, graphite pencil 173 Valerio Adami, Disegno par un ritratto di W Benjamin, 24 August 1973, graphite pencil; private collection 176 and 182 Photograph of Walter Benjamin which served as the model for the Disegno 182 (Photos, Maeght Gallery; except number 7: photo, Bacci) Cartouches Gerard Titus-Carmel, photograph of the "real" model (The Pocket Size 71ingit Coffin, 1975) in the author's hand 187 ILLUSTRATIONS ix Th e Pocket Size Tlingit Coffi!), 1975; Georges Pompidou Center, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris (museum photos) 23 June 1975, pencil and watercolor on paper 199 II July 1976, sanguine and collage on paper 199 29 August 1975, graphite pencil on paper 206 17 September 1975, lithographic pencil on paper 206 4 October 1975, graphite pencil on paper 207 9 February 1976, graphite pencil on paper 207 20 August 1975, ink, pencil and tracing on paper 212 21 August 1975, India ink on paper 212 24 June 1975, engraving plate and proof on paper 233 21 July 1975, soft varnish proof on paper 234 5 October 1975, pencil, tracing and collage on letter-paper 241 27 March 1976, sanguine pencil, pastel tracings on letter-paper fixed by its corners to supporting paper 241 The author in front of Th e Great Cultural Banana Plantation; Aachen, January 1972 248 Th e Four Season Sticks-Summer Stick: Knotted at Both Ends, 1974, pencil on paper; private collection, Copenhagen 248 18 Mausoleums for 6 New York Ta xi Drivers-Mausoleum Mo­ desto Hernandez NO. 3, 1970, pencil and fur on paper; private collection, Paris 249 20 Va riations on the Idea of Deterioration-Drawing 12, 1971, pencil on paper, D.B.C. collection, Paris 250 17 Examples of Alteration of a Sphere-Ninth Alteration, 197 1, pencil on paper, private collection, Liege 250 Th e Use of the Necessary-Lachesis 4, 1972, pencil on paper; F. and J. Choay collection, Paris 25 I Th e Use of the Necessary-Leon, emir cornu d'un roc, rime. Noel, 1972, pencil on paper; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaeck, Denmark 251 x The Truth in Painting H.I.O.X.-O, 19 73, pencil and collage on paper, S. and Z. Mis collection, Brussels 252 Dismantling-Dismantling 6, 19 72, pencil and collage on paper; private collection, Paris 252 15 Latin Incisions-Lucretius (detail), 19 73, pencil on paper; pri- vate collection, Liege 253 (Photos, Andre Morain, except where museum photos indicated) Restitutions Vincent Van Gogh, Old Shoes with Laces, 1886, National Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (museum photo) 258 Vincent Van Gogh, Still Life (basket with oranges and lemons, branches, gloves), ArIes, 1889 ; Mellon Collection, Upperville, Virginia (photo, MACULA) 270 Vincent Van Gogh, Peasant Wom an of Brabant, 188 5; National Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (museum photo) 280 Vincent Van Gogh, Th e Shoes, Paris, 188 7; Baltimore Museum of Art (photo, MACULA) 289 Vincent Van Gogh, Th e Shoes, Paris, 1886 -87; Schumacher Col- lection, Brussels (photo, MACULA) 289 Vincent Van Gogh, Th ree Pairs of Shoes, 1886 -87; M. We rtheim Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (museum photo) 310 Rene Magritte, Th e Red Model, 1935 ; Georges Pompidou Center, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris (museum photo) 315 Rene Magritte, Philosophy in the Boudoir, 194 7; private collec- tion, Wa shington, D.C. (photo, X.) 316 Rene Magritte, Th e Well of Truth, 1963 ; Davlyn Galleries, New York (photo, X.) 31 7 Vincent Van Gogh, Still Life (bottles, vases, clogs), Nuenen, 1884 ; Stichting Museum van Baaren, Utrecht (photo, MAC- ULA) 330 ILLUSTRATIONS xi Vincent Van Gogh, Still Life (cabbages, clogs, etc.). The Hague, 1881, National Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (mu- seum photo) 330 Rene Magritte, Th e Key of Dreams, The Moon (detail), 1930j private collection (photo, X.) 333 Richard Lindner, Th e Shoe, 1976-77 (photo, Maeght Gal- lery) 33 5 Jan Van Eyck, Th e Arnolfini Marriage, 1434j National Gallery, London (museum photo) 350 Vincent Van Gogh, Th e Shoes, Arles, August 1888j Kramarsky Trust Fund, New York (photo, MACULA) 375 Translators' Preface Classically speaking, any translator is placed in the uncomfortable position of absolute generosity with respect to his or her readers, giving them as a gift a meaning they would not otherwise be able to obtain. The translator's task, in this conception, is a noble and even saintly one, an act of pure charity independent of incidental financial reward. This position is uncomfortable because it is false: in fact the translator's attitude to the reader is profoundly ambivalent, and this ambivalence can only be increased when s/he has learned from the author to be translated that the task is strictly speaking an impossible one. The absolutely generous proj­ ect of giving Derrida's meaning to be read would rapidly produce the absolutely ungenerous result of leaving the text in French, leaving ourselves a certain amount of self-congratulation on being able at least to begin to read it that way, and slyly affecting com­ miseration for those unable to do so. The classical ideal of self­ effacing, respectful, and charitable translation is in fact the death of translation. Yet Derrida's work undeniably calls for translation, but for translation as transformation: that transformation affects both languages at work-our English is transformed as is Derrida's French. As Derrida notes, however, such a transformation must be regulated jthough not, we would add, by the principle of charity for the reader): yet no single rule is sufficient for that regulation, and least of all the rule that our aim should be to reproduce in the English or American reader the same "effect" that Derrida's French produces on the French. Any such rule would be a radical xiv Translators' Preface refusal of the trace of translation, and is in fact the fantasy of logocentrism itself. Refusing any such rule implies the adoption of flexible strategies, including those of supplying some of the French text, adding some explanatory footnotes, sometimes being guided almost exclusively by the signifier, as in parts of "+ R" and in the subtitle of "Restitutions." The problems facing the translator are at their greatest in the case of idiom (The Truth in Painting is also "about" the idiom [in painting]): pure idiom is the untranslatable itself. Here the best we can hope is that the reader might learn some French-it was a guiding fantasy of our work (a fantasy which remained just that) that by the end of the book the reader would have learned French and that our translation would thus have made itself un­ necessary, although not self-effacing. No translation could be self­ effacing before the mise en boite of "Cartouches" or the revenir and rendre of "Restitutions." Not that these are pure idioms: but in Derrida's work of reliteralization and etymologization of such examples, the idiom becomes disseminated throughout the whole of French (and therefore several other languages too).