brush burn tear

Here is what Nancy says of art and memory:

“No anamnesis rises up within it, but every gesture of art strives toward its irruption, approaches to the point of brushing against it, and if necessary, to the point of burning itself and tearing itself apart.”

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The drawings of hands I’ve taken from Botticelli’s painting of  The Three Graces, and Bill Viola’s video, The Greeting. Both works are mentioned in Nancy’s essay. Viola’s video piece (1995) is a contemporary re-interpretation of Pontormo’s work: a “restaging and re-presenting,” to use Nancy’s words.  And the Botticelli, Nancy adds, influenced Pontormo’s composition of the figures.

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