An Approach to the Image as Apparition

Abstract

This article analyzes the theoretical implications of investigating the contemporary image of art as emergence and how its study can challenge the boundaries of the discipline of art history. To achieve this purpose, we will focus on reflections and concepts Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin, and Didi-Huberman presented in history, philosophy, and art. Among them are the idea of appearing and the operative notions of Nachleben and Pathosformel. From this perspective, it is suggested that the image is a singular apparition that can transform, question, and revitalize historical and cultural processes, especially those traversed by violence that determines the tragic character of culture. It also addresses the relevance of revitalizing the “historical intelligibility of images” and how memories and metamorphoses are linked to the sensitive character of the apparition. This paper provides a perspective on the role of the contemporary image and examines how, in its multiple transformations, we find symptoms, seismic and traumatic waves that invite us to consider the forces and forms of the past, whose reminiscences and shudders present themselves in the plasticity of the present.