Representation without background? A critical reading of Wollheim and Greenberg on the representational character of abstract pictures

Abstract

Focussing on some claims addressed by Richard Wollheim and Clement Greenberg I investigate how the concepts of depicted figure, background of a pictorial scene and ground of a picture are relevant for an understanding of the relation between figurative and abstract pictures, especially when it comes to consider whether abstract pictures can be said to represent pictorially.

Keywords

• Wollheim
• Greenberg
• Abstract
• Figurative
• Image