Shades—Of Painting at the Limit (Studies in Continental Thought) Hardcover – October 22, 1998

Very disappointed in this book... it seemed quaisi academic and offered, to me, no new insights.

This is a major philosophical work that requires some background knowledge of the history of philosophy of the reader, especially in the tradition of Kant and German Idealism. Paintings are not mere art objects for Sallis. Great paintings are sites of the disclosure of truth. His interpretation of Monet's "Haystacks" series develops the primal showing of light as it meets the earth and the basic entities that perch upon it. His Kandinsky chapter reveals painting breaking out of its tie to representation. His chapter on the contemporary artist Mimmo Paladino extends his meditation on the appropriate relation between painting and word, or meaning. Philosophers are brought into his text as partners of these artists. Readers looking for a radical yet grounded way to regard painting will find much to ponder from this book.