A newly translated English edition of Gilles Deleuze's 1981 seminars on painting, originally published in French as 'Sur la peinture' in 2023, has been released by the University of Minnesota Press. Translated by Charles J. Stivale, the eight lectures explore what concepts painting can offer to philosophy, rather than the reverse. Deleuze discusses terms like catastrophe, the diagram, and figure, focusing on artists such as Titian, Turner, Cézanne, van Gogh, Klee, Mondrian, Pollock, and Bacon, offering a chaotic yet magnificent counterpoint to his more systematic book 'Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation'.
This publication matters because it provides an unpolished, animated view of Deleuze's thinking process, distinct from his tidied-up monographs. Deleuze's philosophical impact—shaping poststructuralism, postmodernism, the affective turn, and new materialism—remains vast across humanities disciplines. The seminars offer a rare, direct encounter with Deleuze speaking and thinking in real time, making them a significant resource for scholars and students of philosophy, visual studies, and art theory, reinforcing his enduring influence on contemporary thought.