Spectrum of Art Sensibilities: Critical Reflections on the Global Turn in Contemporary Art

Category - annual lecture 2015
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Noted Indonesian art critic and curator Jim Supangkat will deliver the fourth MA Asian Art Histories Annual Lecture on 25 March 2015.

Spectrum of Art Sensibilities: Critical Reflections on the Global Turn in Contemporary Art

Distinguished Speaker : Jim Supangkat
Moderator : Professor Yvonne Spielmann

Wed 25 March 2015
7.00pm-9.00pm

Block F Level 2 #F202
LASALLE College of the Arts
1 McNally Street

Free admission (on a first-come first-served basis)

RSVP: wulandani.dirgantoro@lasalle.edu.sg
A reception will follow

In this lecture, Jim Supangkat will focus on German philosopher GWF Hegel’s (1770- 1831) notion of art sensibility spectrum – that there is no longer a singular art sensibility as previously believed – as the common ground and raison d’être of world art, international art, and global art. Belief in an absolute truth made the plurality of art sensibilities into a catalyst of competing thoughts, each attempting to return art sensibility to its singular form and definition. However, the development of contemporary art marked the end of this singular notion. The lecture will look at how contemporary art practices, amongst others by Asian artists, paved the way for plurality, an instance where reality is not a monolithic substance but rather a nuanced substance – a possible return to Hegel’s notion of art sensibility spectrum.

Jim Supangkat (b.1948) is an art critic and curator based in Indonesia. He initiated the Indonesia New Art Movement in 1970s which was regarded as the beginning of contemporary art discourse in Indonesia. He has curated curating contemporary art exhibitions in Indonesia and overseas, including Contemporary Art of the Non-Aligned Countries (1995), CP Biennale I (2003) and CP Biennale II (2005), Contemporaneity: Contemporary Art in Indonesia at MOCA Shanghai (2010). Supangkat has written several books and numerous essays on Southeast Asian and Indonesian contemporary art. He is a recipient of the Prince Claus Awards in 1997 for his efforts in introducing Indonesian contemporary art to the global art world. 

The full transcript of the lecture can be found here.

A recording of the lecture can be viewed below.