A IDEIA, A SÉRIE E A FORMA: DESAFIOS DA IMAGEM NO PENSAMENTO DE CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSSAbstract:
In this paper, one attempts to apply Lévi-Strauss' theoretical approach to art to an object he himself has not examined: abstract art in the West. The text begins with a controversy between Lévi-Strauss and the theorist of Surrealism, Andre Breton, over the magic of art. The controversy highlights the originality of Lévi-Strauss as a theorist of art, in permanent dialogue with the Modernists of his time, as well as the centrality of art in his structural theory. If for Breton the magic of art is universal because it appeals to processes of intuitive apprehension, opposite to reason, for Lévi-Strauss the challenge of universality of art consists in being one of the privileged places for exploration of formal thought. Lévi-Strauss proposes to interpret simultaneously the constitution of image and the mental operations within each cultural universe. If Lévi-Strauss followed this path to make sense of the kadiwéu arabesques, it is proposed here to follow this trail in the analysis of abstract art.
Keywords: Lévi-Strauss; Abstract Art; Image; Cognition; Structuralism
