Art and the Emotions: The Pleasures of Regret

Organised in partnership with The Centre for Philosophy and Art, King’s College London, this panel discussion is the first in a series exploring the relationship between the National Gallery Collection – as well as art more widely – and our emotions. 
Regrets may be painful or bittersweet. They can be ethically loaded or merely aquestion of ‘what if?’. But above all they can be understood as a mix of reminiscence and grief over things that we have done or have failed to do.  
However, regrets may also determine our future actions and could even be perceived as pleasurable or productive. What might this mean for artists and how we experience and interpret their work? And how might art help us to understand the regrets of others? Join philosophers, writers and artists to debate these questions.
Speakers include Vanessa Brassey, lecturer and co-director of the Centre for Philosophy and Art, Andy West, author of ‘The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Philosophy’, author and arts journalist Chloë Ashby, and Sacha Golob, Reader in Philosophy, King’s College London.
Image: Detail from Claude Monet, ‘Water-Lilies, Setting Sun’, about 1907