Lecture by Robert Felfe in Paris

In art history, phrases such as ‘after life’ and ‘after nature’ imply a certain relationship between images and their subjects, between art and nature. On the one hand, this at least suggests a direct, close and, in a sense, trustworthy referential relationship – perhaps even a kind of truth inherent in the image. On the other hand, however, such expressions in various languages tend to imply a particular effect that images have on us – as if the images in question were, aesthetically speaking, to come close to the experience of nature and the living. This lecture explores this tension and, thereby, the broader question of historical relationships between art and the experience of nature, creative processes, media and living existence.

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