An examination of how art shapes Deleuze's thought; reconstructing the social and intellectual contexts that informed the creation of his concepts.

In Deleuze and Art Anne Sauvagnargues, one of the world's most renowned Deleuze scholars, offers a unique insight into the constitutive role played by art in the formation of Deleuze's thought. By reproducing Deleuze's social and intellectual references, Sauvagnargues is able to construct a precise map of the totality of Deleuze's work, pinpointing where key Deleuzian concepts first emerge and eventually disappear. This innovative methodology, which Sauvagnargues calls "periodization", provides a systematic historiography of Deleuze's philosophy that remains faithful to his affirmation of the principle of exteriority. By analyzing the external relations between Deleuze's self-proclaimed three philosophical periods, Sauvagnargues gives the reader an inside look into the conceptual and artistic landscape that surrounded Deleuze and the creation of his philosophy. With extreme clarity and precision, Sauvagnargues provides an important glimpse into Deleuze's philosophy by reconstructing the social and intellectual contexts that contributed to the trajectory of his thought. This book is the product of insightful and careful research, which has not been made available to English readers of Deleuze before now.

"Readers will be impressed with Sauvagnargues' masterful grasp of Deleuze's entire oeuvre, and admire her tightly argued claims about how his aesthetics is based in empirical experimentation with material and social effects and real consequences for processes of subjectivation." - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Anne Sauvagnargues is well-known in France as one of Deleuze’s most original and incisive interpreters, and Samantha Bankston’s fluid and accurate translation has at last made this important book accessible to English speaking readers. Deleuze and Art not only provides a wide-ranging analysis of Deleuze’s writings on aesthetics, but uses the domain of art as a point of access into his entire philosophical system. This is a landmark text destined to become a classic in the interpretation of Deleuze’s work." - Daniel W. Smith, Associate Professor, Purdue University, USA