Luxury and leisure: Philosophical approaches to art history

We are pleased to announce our upcoming series of courses, Luxury and leisure: Philosophical approaches to art history, in collaboration with the National Gallery. Within Western art, luxury and leisure are deeply ambiguous concepts. Luxury is associated with pleasure and splendour, but also with corruption and excess. Leisure promises relaxation and peace but threatens to slide towards indolence and idleness. Over this three-week course, we will examine how these concepts are explored in paintings from the Gallery's collection - and how they might be applied to our own interaction with art. 

The three sessions offer a novel and illuminating way to approach the Collection, to forge new links between the artworks and contemporary questions, and to reflect on our own love of art. 

Courses will run online on Tuesdays throughout February. Click here for more information.