Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty: An Aesthetics of Difference

The purposes of this paper are two-fold. Firstly to show the importance within Deleuze’s aesthetics of the notion of the Gestalt, conceived of as a figure against a background, and secondly to show the degree to which the recognition of the importance of this notion leads to a sympathy for the themes of Merleau-Ponty within his work. After showing the motivations for Merleau-Ponty’s adoption of the concept of the Gestalt, and its application within Eye and Mind, I want to show that despite the similarities in their analyses, Merleau-Ponty’s analysis is ultimately incapable of providing a complete description of the work of art.