The world of art history and criticism was profoundly modified by the development of deconstructionism, based on the ideas of Foucault, whereby all cultural practices, no less than more generally social ones, can be translated into discursive practices directed at the self-referential reinforcement of meaning and power. This assumption tore away at any possible interpretation of art that aspired to speak of its object of interest without, in reality, doing anything but defining itself and its own presumed necessity. [...]