Somewhere Between Art History and Phenomenology

No one writing art history, theory, or criticism is like Michael Holly. Even though she has worked for years at the professional center of the discipline, she has carefully nourished a line of thinking that leads toward something different. Here you’ll find a voice like Thomas Merton or Simone Weil, at once aware of contemporary philosophy and attuned to an inner voice. This is a lovely meditation on the wonder of painting, blending “intellectual inquiry and individual insight,” mingling mid-20th century phenomenology with the “solitude, silence, and solace” of 15th and 16th century painting. The book is a tonic for a discipline often overheated with the current moment. -- James Elkins, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
In these highly personal, richly evocative meditations, effortlessly moving back and forth between philosophy and visual art, Michael Ann Holly thinks out loud about painting. Her mind richly stocked by reading of Bachelard, Gadamer, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Panofsky, this tightly woven book is as readable as a great spy novel. -- David Carrier, author of Philosophical Skepticism as the Subject of Art: Maria Bussmann’s Drawings (2022)