by Jon Lackman | 29 September 2006 | Modern
Hubert Damisch is “lightfooted and refreshingly sharp-tongued” in his study of Delacroix’s “intimate diary,” in which Damisch asks how painters perceived the arrival of photography, writes Christine Tauber (German edition; French edition). The painter was interested in how sense impressions could be properly remembered, given the inadequacy of verbal expression to communicate them. Could photography help? He saw the latter as a “spoilsport” that disenchanted the effort to remember and threatened the autonomy of the imagination. He did actually find photography useful, but only with a second-class status to painting.
