The Pictorial Turn

The 'pictorial turn' names the claim that images, rather than language, have become the dominant cultural form — prompting a new theoretical attention to what pictures are and what they do.

Definition

The pictorial turn is the thesis, advanced by W. J. T. Mitchell, that contemporary culture is increasingly organized around images rather than texts, calling for a theory of pictures that treats visual representation as irreducible to linguistic models.

Scope

This topic covers W. J. T. Mitchell's announcement of a 'pictorial turn' in the humanities, the parallel German notion of the 'iconic turn' (ikonische Wende) associated with Gottfried Boehm, and the resulting program of an 'image science' (Bildwissenschaft). It examines the argument that images are not reducible to language, that they exercise a kind of agency, and what this implies for art history and the wider humanities.

Core questions

• In what sense have images displaced language as the dominant cultural medium?
• Why are pictures irreducible to linguistic or textual models of meaning?
• What does it mean to ask what pictures 'want' or do, rather than only what they mean?
• How does the pictorial turn reshape the agenda of art history and the humanities?

Key theories

The pictorial turn

Mitchell argued that, following the 'linguistic turn', the humanities have undergone a 'pictorial turn' in which the image becomes a central problem; pictures are not transparent illustrations of texts but autonomous objects with their own logic that resist full linguistic decoding.

The lives and agency of images

In What Do Pictures Want?, Mitchell proposed treating images as if they have desires and a quasi-living agency, shifting the question from interpretation of meaning to the powers, demands, and effects that pictures exert on viewers.

History

W. J. T. Mitchell announced the 'pictorial turn' in essays gathered in Picture Theory (1994), and developed its implications in What Do Pictures Want? (2005). In the German-speaking world, Gottfried Boehm independently proposed the 'iconic turn', and the program of Bildwissenschaft (image science), associated also with Hans Belting, emerged as a parallel enterprise to Anglophone visual culture studies.

Debates

Whether images are truly autonomous from language

Critics question Mitchell's claim that pictures resist linguistic analysis, arguing that interpretation inevitably proceeds through language; defenders maintain that images carry meanings and effects that no verbal paraphrase fully captures.

Key figures

• W. J. T. Mitchell
• Gottfried Boehm
• Hans Belting

Seminal works

• mitchell1994
• mitchell2005

Frequently asked questions

What is the pictorial turn?

It is W. J. T. Mitchell's claim that images have become the dominant form of contemporary culture, requiring a theory of pictures that treats visual representation as something more than illustrated language.