Thinking Art: Materialisms, Labours, Forms

by Peter Osborne (Editor)

‘In what way, if any, does art need philosophy, or philosophy art?' This transdisciplinary collection of essays provides a snapshot of current philosophical debates about contemporary art: debates about ‘vital' materialisms; the destabilizing effects of new technologies and social relations on formal categories; ecological crisis and postcoloniality.

Contributors: Caroline Bassett, Dave Beech, Ayesha Hameed, Klara Kemp-Welch, Jaleh Mansoor, Christian Nyampeta, Peter Osborne, Luger Schwarte, Keston Sutherland, Giovanna Zapperi.

Available free as ebook, or to purchase as paperback, on the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy website.

236 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Peter Osborne is Professor of Modern European Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), Kingston University London and was appointed Visiting Professor of Critical Studies at Yale in 2017. From 1983 to 2016, he was an editor of the British journal Radical Philosophy. He has contributed to a range of international journals (including Art History, Cultural Studies, New German Critique, New Left Review, October, Telos and Texte zur Kunst) and to the catalogues of major art institutions (including Manifesta 5, Tate Modern, Biennale of Sydney, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Office of Contemporary Art Norway, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Oslo, CGAC in Santiago de Compostela, and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.)
He has recently held Visiting International Chairs in the Philosophy Department at the University of Paris 8 (2012 & 2014) and in ‘Philosophy in the Context of Art’ at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm (2015).
His books include The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (1995; 2011), Philosophy in Cultural Theory (2000), Conceptual Art (2002), Marx (2005), El arte mas alla de la estetica: ensayos filosoficos sobre el arte contemporaneo (2010), Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art (2013) and The Postconceptual Condition (2018).