A Bakhtinian Approach to the Visual Arts: The Prospect for a New Methodology

A critical study applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories to the study of visual art.

This work is the first to propose a cohesive methodology for applying Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin’s thought to visual art. David Olivant draws on intermediary frameworks developed by Susanne Langer, Norman Bryson, Lev Vygotsky, Pavel Florensky, Philip Rawson, Michael Baxandall, and Gilles Deleuze. Bakhtin’s philosophical and linguistic insights are examined in relation to works by Giotto, Tilman Riemenschneider, Diego Velázquez, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Marlene Dumas, Lee Bontecou, Anthony Caro, and Adrian Ghenie.

David Olivant is a visual artist with an MA from the Royal College of Art. He is an emeritus professor of painting from California State University, Stanislaus, where he taught painting and art theory for twenty-five years.