In Thought and Motionthe philosopher Henri Bergson delivers to us on the occasion of a metaphysical reflection on the change, the movement, the possible, or the nothingness, his vision of theart.
This one is in connection with the concept of presentation or representation.
Thus Bergson writes:
What is the purpose of art, in nature and in the mind, outside of us and inside of us, if not to present us things that did not explicitly strike our senses and our consciousness?
Bergson then takes the example of the poet and the novelist:
As they speak to us, nuances of emotion and thought appear to us which could have been represented in us for a long time, but which remained invisible.
But Bergson grants a privileged status to the painter:
nowhere does the function of the artist show itself so clearly as in that of the arts which gives the largest place to imitation, I mean painting.
