Abstract:

Jullien believes that Western nude art is supported by the ideas such as essence and ideal in Western philosophy. The Chinese ontology emphasizes change and process, so it is impossible to think that “the nude is the essence”. Jullien excludes nude works such as the pornographic paintings from his examination of nude art, because they show nakedness as a process from shedding to exposing, rather than the nude as a natural state of nudity. However, Agamben, via the discussion of the Christian view of the nude, points out that the nude is always relative to exposure, and there is only the nakedness rather than the nude. This makes Chinese and Western nude art on a more equal comparative plane since the post-structuralist view of the essence behind Agamben’s distinction is in line with ancient Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and also introduces the dimension of desire into the discussion of nude art. At this point, Chinese nude art should also be included in the comparison, not only because of the similarity of the theme, but also because they contain a Chinese view of the body and philosophy as well. Its absence in Jullien also prompts us to further reflect on the issue of cross-cultural comparison.

Key words: the nude, Jullien, Agamben, essence, desire