Formalism and Kunstwissenschaft: The “How” of the Image

This article addresses formalism as a methodological approach focussed on the “how” of the image (lines, colors, planes, volumes, composition). In doing so, it refers to formalism as to a complex archipelago of authors and theoretical stances, such as the German-speaking “Kunstwissenschaft”, the European constellation of “pure visibility”, American formalist, new formalist and post-formalist positions. The polyvalent notion of “form” at the core of the formalistic approach is connected to a framework of salient concepts: formation (key to the morphological tradition), the couples “distance/nearness” and “surface/depth”, the plexus “eye-body”, the relation of form to life and feeling, the cognate notion of “structure”, the relevance of technique and medium. The article concludes discussing the problematic notion of “pseudomorphism” and its pros and cons in the evaluation of the look-alikes.