CONCEPTS AND WHAT WE SEE.

CONCEPTS AND WHAT WE SEE. Adam Gopnik contrasts the “conceptual” and the “perceptual” and argues that the Bronzino example shows that in drawing (and also in looking) there is a tension between concepts and what the retina perceives.
The retina takes in “a riot of color and light reflections.” These impressions are useless unless they are organized into shapes. Gopnik says: “Even line itself, the assertion of a contour, however nuanced and optical the shadings within, is as fictional as a quotation mark.” The implication is that we see with the organizing mind as well as with the eyes. A baby must spend much time learning to make sense of the confusing information its eyes are giving it. A drawing is a commentary on our sense impressions and on how we organize those sense impressions.