Guest Lecture – Painter Kurt Kauper
What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must remain silent.
It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed.
Ethics is transcendental.
(Ethics and Aesthetics are one.)
–Ludwig Wittgenstein
What do we mean when we talk about “meaning” in a work of art? How do images and objects communicate—if that is even the right word for their role in our lives? We often speak of the language of painting or sculpture, but are these truly forms of language, or are we using a metaphor for something that resists precise description? Artists are frequently called upon to explain their work, and those explanations can give the impression that artworks themselves explicate something about the world. But how effectively—or persuasively—can images and objects actually do that?
In this lecture, Kurt Kauper explores ways of thinking about the “meaning” of works of art while also asking whether “meaning” is the right framework for understanding why art matters to us at all.
Free and open to the public. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Location: 84 Lyme Street, Old Lyme
North entrance, Wilson Riley Library
Image: René Magritte, L’Apparition (The Apparition), 1928. Oil on Canvas. Collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany.
