Art and the emotions: The sublime and the modern world

Organised in partnership with The Centre for Philosophy and Art, King’s College London, this panel discussion is the second in a series exploring the relationship between the National Gallery Collection, as well as art more widely, and our emotions. 
The experience of the sublime – a mix of wonder, fear and a sense of the ungraspable or the transcendent – has fascinated artists and theorists since the 17th century. Often conveyed through landscape painting and photography, from the Alps to the Arctic, depicting vast quarries to deserted cityscapes, it has served as one of Western art’s key reference points. 

But how exactly should we understand the sublime and its history? How does it relate to concepts such as beauty or disaster or trauma? And to what degree can it change as our relationship to nature itself changes? Join philosophers, writers and artists to debate these questions. 

Speakers include Sacha Golob, Co-director of the Centre for Philosophy and Art at King’s College London; Eugenie Shinkle, Reader in Photography at the University of Westminster; and Niles Luther, cellist, composer and Musical Director for Kehinde Wiley Studio.