Composing Beauty: Mapplethorpe’s Quest for Perfection
Jeanne Proust at BAM Fisher
Wed, May 29 at 7 p.m. | 90 minutes
*Tickets to this Olio are highly limited and are being sold on the BAM website. RSVP here
Co-presented by BAM and Think Olio
Led by Jeanne Proust
“I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect.”
—Robert Mapplethorpe
In this Olio, Jeanne Proust engages participants in an expansive conversation about Robert Mapplethorpe’s work, through the lens of aesthetics and the famed photographer’s quest for perfect beauty. In thinking about Mapplethorpe’s carefully composed photographs of provocative subjects, can we engage with beauty solely through the aesthetic qualities of the representation itself? Or is our appreciation of beauty inherently linked to the moral connotations of the subject matter? Proust also brings Mapplethorpe’s work into dialogue with French poet Baudelaire, who helped redefine our notion of beauty and what can be considered beautiful. Is beauty within the subject matter or within the spectator?
Teacher: Jeanne Proust
While teaching at different universities in New York, Jeanne is advocating for a widening of philosophical education beyond the academia frontiers by participating in different events open to the general public. She taught at Rikers Island as a volunteer, and regularly gives public talks in philosophy, leading her to recently produce her own podcast, "Can You Phil It?”.
Venue: BAM Fisher
Add to Calendar
May 29, 20197 p.m.
May 29, 2019
America/New_York
Think Olio | Composing Beauty: Mapplethorpe’s Quest for Perfection
In this Olio, Jeanne Proust engages participants in an expansive conversation about Robert Mapplethorpe’s work, through the lens of aesthetics and the famed photographer’s quest for perfect beauty.
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