EVENTS
Peter Osborne. Art beyond Aesthetics. Philosophy and Criticism in Contemporary Art.
03/11/2009 – 04/11/2009
Peter Osborne
Art beyond Aesthetics. Philosophy and Criticism in Contemporary Art
3rd/4th November, 2009
In order to prepare Peter Osborne's seminar, CENDEAC invites you to take part in a reading group in which to go through the bibliography he has suggested. If you are interested in taking part, click here
Attending the seminar and/or reading group, can lead to academic credits awarded by the Universidad de Murcia
Sessions
- Criticism. 3rd of November
Art criticism has for many years now been declared to be ‘in crisis’. But is this crisis intellectual or institutional? What concept of criticism is appropriate to contemporary art? This seminar will consider this question, first, from the standpoint of the philosophical sources of the modern concept of criticism in Kant, Early German Romanticism and Hegel; and second, with regard to the delineation of the category of ‘contemporary art’.
Should criticism be primarily about pleasure, interpretation, or truth? What are the parameters of judgement? Should judgement be internal or external to the work?
Reading
Peter Osborne, ‘Art Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Criticism, Art History and Contemporary Art’, chapter 1 of El arte más allá de la estética
Background reading
Walter Benjamin, The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism (1919), Part 2, ‘Criticism of Art’.
----------------------, ‘Theory of Criticism’ (fragment, 1919/20).
- The New . 4th of November
Modernism is often associated with a break with the terms of the philosophy of history, and the installation of ‘the new’ as the permanent demand of an absolute, self-transcending present – a demand that continues to impose itself on contemporary art. But what does it mean for a work of art to be qualitatively historically ‘new’, rather than a mere ‘novelty’ in a sense associated with fashion? This seminar will consider this question through a critical comparison of two competing philosophical conceptions of the new: (1) Adorno’s post-Hegelian dialectical model of the new as the ‘determinate negation’ of the old, (2) Deleuze’s post-Nietzschean conception of the new in terms of a purely affirmative creative act.
Is negation or affirmation the driving force behind the production of the new?
Reading
Peter Osborne, ‘Modernisms and Mediations’, chapter 2 of El arte más allá de la estética
Peter Osborne and Éric Alliez, ‘Philosophy and Contemporary Art, After Adorno and
Deleuze: An Exchange’, Appendix 2 of El arte más allá de la estética
Background reading
Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory (1970), ‘The New: Its Philosophy of History’, in
chapter 2, ‘Situation’.
Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962), sections 10–15 of chapter 5, ‘The
Overman: Against the Dialectic’.
Biography
Peter Osborne is Professor of Modern European Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, London and an editor of the journal Radical Philosophy. His books include The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (1995), Philosophy in Cultural Theory (2000), Conceptual Art (2002; Spanish 2006), Marx (Granta, 2005) and (ed.) Walter Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory (3 Volumes, Routledge, 2005). His writing on contemporary art includes essays on Victor Burgin, Elmgreen & Dragset, Tracey Emin, the Chapman Brothers, Gerhard Richter and Robert Smithson. He has contributed to Afterall, Art History, October, Oxford Art Journal, the anthology Where is the Photograph? (2003; Spanish ed. 2007) and catalogues for Manifesta 5 (San Sebastian, 2004), Time Zones (Tate Modern, 2004), Zones of Contact, the 2006 Biennale of Sydney, The Quick and the Dead (Walker Center, Minneapolis, 2009) and Matias Faldbakken (Norwegian National Gallery, 2009). A collection of his recent essays, El arte más allá de la estética, will be published by CENDEAC in October 2009.
Information and enrolment
Language of the Seminar: English with simultaneous translation into Spanish
CENDEAC is accessible for wheelchair users and people with diminished mobility. Whenever possible, we will strive to provide on request a transcript of papers for users with impaired hearing.
Auditorium Capacity: 140 people
Free entry to those who do not wish to receive an attendance certificate (paying users will be granted preferential entry if the auditorium reaches its full capacity).
In order to enrol and obtain a certificate of attendance, you need to:
- Attend all sessions of the course
- Fill in the enrolment form
- Pay the appropriate fee
Fee: 30 € professionals, 15€ students, unemployed and OAPs (proof of status will be required). Free for holders of a Friends of CENDEAC card.
In order to enrol online it is necessary to fill in the enrolment form and make a payment for the appropriate fee WITHIN TWO WEEKS OF ENROLMENT to CAJAMURCIA bank, Account Number 2043 0090 34 2000550928, specifying as a concept the name of the seminar and SENDING ONE COPY OF THE PAYMENT RECEIPT to CENDEAC (you can do this by email or fax in order to save time and avoid de-enrolment, however, if you are de-enrolled you will be enrolled again on receipt of your payment slip). Alternatively, you can enrol and pay your fee at the CENDEAC office (Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4p.m. to 8 p.m.).
CENDEAC
Antiguo Cuartel de Artillería. Pabellón 5.
C/ Madre Elisea Oliver Molina, s/n
30002 - Murcia (España)
cendeac@cendeac.net