cross discipline connection

While trying to understand Barthes' thoughts on "interpretation", 'the broken text" and many other aspects of "From Work to Text" I remembered readings from an art history class. Carl Einstein wrote about his "problem" with Rodin and sculpture in general. Einstein wanted a new way to look at sculpture. He asserted that to understand a piece by Rodin you had to annihilate the materiality of the piece. The nature of Rodin's work -- the "modele" "thumbprintyness" of the piece forces viewers to bring it into present to see "the meaning". a better example of this, if you're not sure of why Rodin's work would need you to annihilate its materiality is pointillism. you have to ignore the fact that it is just little dots "to see" the painting--or do you? the painting is a collection of dots but also a picture created by the structure of those dots. Point and picture are mutually exclusive, but paradoxically contingent upon one and other. as a viewer you have to choose a way to interpret what is in front of you-- I don't really remember the rest of what Einstein said, but I found the same dance around viewer and participation, materiality of the medium and meaning in Barthes work and it was helpful to think about these same questions in a more concrete way.