virtual philosopher

Aesthetics Courses at Tate Modern 2010 - Booking Open

Details of the 3 Aesthetics courses I'm teaching at Tate Modern are available here. Booking is open. Tickets usually go very quickly.

Aesthetics at Tate Modern - booking open

You can now book by telephone on 0207 887 8888 for my 7 Ways of Thinking About Art course on Monday evenings at Tate Modern 19th October to 30th November 2009 (7 sessions). If you need information about the sorts of topics covered and the approach, you can check out notes from a previous version of this course. Further details of the course should be on the Tate Modern website next week and in the forthcoming events leaflet.

Tate Modern Course October 2009 - 7 Ways of Thinking About Art

Tate Modern - I will be teaching the course 'Seven Ways of Thinking About Art' on  7 consecutive Monday evenings from 19th October until 30th November. Booking required.

The course explores the philosophical basis of our attempts to understand works of art. Topics covered include the question of whether works of art are simply catalysts to purely subjective responses, the relevance of an artist's intentions, a work’s historical context, its originality, and its context within the gallery.

Participants have the opportunity to explore a range of positions from a theoretical perspective and to test their application against particular works of art in the gallery.

Booking will open in September. All booking is via the Tate Modern booking office.

In the Spring I will begin the cycle of three 6-session courses on Aesthetics at Tate Modern Classic Aesthetics, Modern Aesthetics and Contemporary Aesthetics.

Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Rothko

There is a podcast of a talk I gave as part of last year's Tate Modern symposium on Mark Rothko available  from the Tate Modern Events podcast. Further details about how to download this mp3 here. Rothko loved Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, both of which, particularly The Birth of Tragedy, influenced him significantly (he was explicity about this in his writings) and suggest ways of approaching his late paintings.

Rothko and Philosophy

I'll be talking at the Tate Modern Rothko Symposium on the influence of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard on Rothko (he read both avidly) and how understanding this influence can give a way of viewing the paintings. This coincides with the Rothko exhibition...

Philosophy of Art Course at Tate Modern October 2008

Tate Modern course:

Classic Aesthetics: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art

Tate Modern, Monday evenings 20th October - 24th November 2008 (six sessions), 6.45 p.m. - 8.15 p.m followed by drinks. £95 (£60 concessions), booking required (details of how to book ). Price includes drinks afterwards.

Led by Nigel Warburton

An opportunity to explore classic aesthetics from Plato's Ion to Kant's Critique of Judgement. Each week we'll discuss a reading from Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology (Blackwell, 2008). Key themes include the nature of art, beauty, the sublime and value judgements about the arts. We'll also look at works in the gallery and analyse them in relation to these ideas. No knowledge of philosophy or art is needed.

This is the first of three six-session courses I will be teaching based on the Aesthetics anthology. The other courses are Modern Aesthetics (start date 16th Feb. 2009) and Contemporary Aesthetics (start date 1st June 2009). Further details about all three courses are available on the Tate Modern website.

Tate Modern Course: Appearances: Philosophy, Photography and the Self

Booking is now open for the course I'm leading at Tate Modern on Monday evenings in June. The course is called Appearances: Philosophy, Photography and the Self and runs during the Street and Studio: An Urban History of Photography exhibition. There are four sessions. Booking is via the Tate Modern website or by telephone on 020 7887 8888..

Forthcoming course on Philosophy and Photographic Portraiture

I will be teaching a new course Appearances at Tate Modern on Monday evenings in June 2008. Further details of this are on my weblog Art and Allusion. This will coincide with Tate Modern's new photography exhibition Street and Studio. Booking will open on the Tate Modern website from early May.

7 Ways of Thinking About Art - Tate Modern

I will be leading a course on the Philosophy of Art at Tate Modern -  Seven Ways of Thinking About Art - on Monday evenings 6.30- 8pm,  4th February - 17th March this year (followed by a drink in the bar from 8pm). If you are interested in attending you should book soon as these courses sell out quite quickly. I'll be posting notes from the course on my other weblog Art and Allusion. This course is a mixture of classroom discussion and looking at works of art in the gallery after the public have left (a privilege in itself).

You can get an idea of the sorts of topics covered in this course and my approach by looking at my notes from the last time I taught the course here. We won't necessarily be looking at the same works for the upcoming course.

This course is also the basis of a book I am writing with the same name...but don't hold your breath.

Tate Modern Course on Louise Bourgeois - Advance Warning

Transformations: Louise Bourgeois’ Art About Life

Led by Nigel Warburton. Venue: Tate Modern.
Monday evenings 19th Nov.- 10th Dec. 2007. Booking details now available from Tate Modern.

This 4-session course investigates Louise Bourgeois’ art from a philosophical angle. Rather than dwelling on art historical connections, participants will have the opportunity to explore and discuss her work through the key themes of Life into Art, the Ambivalent Body, Transforming Pain, and Artistic Style. Bourgeois has declared that her work is about life: this course will provide a framework within which to examine that claim in the presence of the wide range of her art assembled for the major retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern. Each session will focus on a single theme, triggered by Bourgeois work, but will also address wider issues about the nature of art and expression.