What to leave unsaid means: the secret in the practice of painting

Abstract

On the basis of ethnographic research at a painting atelier held in a social and psychiatric institution, we propose a sociological reflection on the notion of secrecy. Under the guidance of pragmatist and phenomenological sociologies, and focusing on the case of an abstract painter, Bonifácio, the notion of secrecy is understood as a form of sociation and a situated and relational experience. From the study that follows, it will be perceived how the formation and maintenance of secrecy is based on the relationship that the painter establishes with his canvases, opening up to enabling modalities of subjectivation that are scarce in the institution. On the one hand, the secret is triggered by the relationship of moral responsibility maintained between the artist and the artwork, thus designing a space of subjective interiority; on the other hand, the canvas is subject to tactical uses on the part of the painter, generating an intercalary space that allows him to accommodate his singularity in the established sociabilities.