Bernard Noël's 'Les peintres du désir' explores desire in painting

In his essay 'Les peintres du désir', Bernard Noël examines the act of seeing in relation to painting, arguing that desire drives both creation and contemplation. He describes desire as 'the caller of painting', its source and purpose. The book traces a 'thoughtful sex' through pictorial avatars of desire, seeking the carnal presence of a pictorial body that is unattainable yet voluptuous. Noël analyzes works from Leonardo da Vinci to Marcel Duchamp, including Goya, focusing on details where he finds the greatest pleasure. He offers a transhistorical panorama, discussing 'sublime', 'fabulous', and 'glorious' bodies as accesses to nudity and the desiring function of the eye. The essay concludes with an analysis of the 'obscure body' in the Bataillean sense—martyred bodies where the painter 'works with the sweat of darkness exuded by mortal presence'. This 'body found' appears in works by Masson, Bellmer, Dado, and Velickovic, where 'flesh is in color, the brush in the wound'. Published by Éditions Gutenberg, the book was reviewed by Léa Bismuth in artpress.