"Out of Focus," at Paris' Musée de l'Orangerie, is an exhibition that, from its title, risks unsettling viewers. The notion of blurriness, in and of itself, seems rather simple: Any image, be it physical or mental, is considered blurry when its subject is not confined to strict limits. Its contours are not clearly drawn up and its volumes fade out. Depending on the degree of uncertainty at play, it can be dubious or impossible to identify, whereas, in more crisply satisfactory conditions, there would be no hesitation. In representational art, for example, in painting, photography or cinema, a blur is, thus, a disruption compared to an ideal of complete visibility.

That said, this is where things begin to get difficult. This disruption can be unintentional, such as when the focus of an optical mechanism is poorly adjusted, but it can also be very intentional. Many photographers have deliberately used seemingly defective settings to command attention. The digital concealment practice of blurring an image has become commonplace on the internet, often for purposes that claim a moral basis or for security reasons.

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