The disputes between iconodules and iconoclasts in the Byzantine Empire, especially fervent between the 8th and 9th centuries, serve as a starting point for rethinking the controversies over the image from a theoretical and symbolic point of view. Because, although these confrontations represent political and theological positions (prohibition of the representation of God according to the Scriptures), by extension, we can think about the tensions that exist between the image and what the image points to —an absence, something that we make appear without being, a lack (a desire). This lack, this appearing without being, is especially present in the iconic image, the image par excellence of the invisible. This presentation aims to expose some «derivations» of these tensions in modern and contemporary art, as well as serving as a brief tour through the notion of image, taking into account its symbolic dimensions of negation, prohibition or lack.