Looking and Making Visible

Abstract

Drawing has been seen as the most intellectual in character among the forms of art, and croquis drawing has been taught within an academic and scientific framework, as theoretical knowledge about the human body was considered necessary to become a master of depiction. Knowledge of this kind may nevertheless become a hindrance when trying to capture the appearance of a model in a drawing: to be able to rely on eye and hand, suppressing knowledge may be required. I discuss this paradox with regard to croquis drawing and the conception of seeing in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations.