Abstract

The text examines forms of »pictorial thinking«, in particular with regard to artworks: thinking »in pictures« as analogous to thinking in words. It relates this topic to the concept of reflexivity in art. Three forms of aesthetic reflexivity are distinguished and related to each other (part I): reflexivity in the sense of reflecting, thematizing states of affairs outside the work: the world and./.or the self (R1), second: reflexivity as material self-reference within the artwork (R2), third: reflexivity as transformation of the subject in the process of the aesthetic experience (R3). The subsequent elucidation makes evident, that these forms of reflexivity never occur alone, but interact. Nevertheless, depending on the epoch and style of the work in question, distinctive emphases and accentuations arise, one of which generally dominates the others: (part II). As an upshot, the text suggests that this succession of reflexivity-forms from R1 to R3 mirrors developments in 20th century art (part III).