Art in the Media – Standards and Perspectives of Cultural Education

Art is more ubiquitous than ever before. Museums continually strengthen their efforts to bring art to the masses. And now with an increasing number of magazines, Internet sites and cultural programmes on television and radio, the media is increasingly defining the relationship between the artwork and the observer.

From a philosophical point of view, the art of communicating lies in the ability to sum up what is displayed in the spatial perspective in one word, to find a language that does justice to both the artist and the artwork. This doesn't always work, and frequently, art remains difficult to understand (and appreciate) for a less knowledgeable public.

The call for a methodically expanded examination and communication of art starkly contrasts the tradition of art criticism as the exclusive domain of experts. When it comes to the field of contemporary art, attempts to make the connoisseur-dominated model of criticism more accessible to other communication concepts are quite rare. Furthermore, the interpretation and assessment of art is more often dictated by the maxims of the global art market than the search for independent standards of explanation.

The symposium at the Museum Villa Stuck was the fourth event in the five-part series Philosophy:Art 2009-2011, jointly organized by the Federal Cultural Foundation and the LMU Munich and hosted at five German museums. The goal of the project is to examine and discuss current issues in the art world in a language as clear and understandable as possible. The hope is to productively apply the methods and concepts of analytical philosophy toward understanding contemporary art.

Introduction: Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin, LMU Munich
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Jakob Steinbrenner, LMU Munich

Project coordinators:
Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin and Prof. Dr. Jakob Steinbrenner
Chair of Philosophy IV, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich