Merleau-Ponty's Body-Centered Aesthetic Phenomenology

In this article, we try to explain Merleau-Ponty's art and aesthetics by focusing on his phenomenology, which is based on bodily sensory perception and show that Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological analysis of the body in his early writings, such as the structure of behavior and especially the phenomenology of art in perception. He is the determining element in the formation of his philosophy of art. The main hypothesis of this paper is that body and art have an intertwined relationship and form the basis of Merleau-Ponty's aesthetic phenomenology. Thus, the artist's sensory perception and body-to-body relationship with and reflection of this encounter in the work of art is a concern of what we have called the body-centered aesthetic phenomenology. In addition, in this phenomenology, we consider painting as a way of thinking that Merleau-Ponty has analyzed concerning Cézanne's works, as well as body-centered aesthetics and, consequently, the close connection between body and art. In this article, we have tried to advance our analysis by referring to the key works of this philosopher.