History of Art and Aesthetics

History of Art, Prof. Dr. Nike Bätzner

The foundation for teaching here is the interpretation of “history for the purpose of life”. The art of the 20th century is to be considered with reference to its preceding history. A particular aim is to identify culmination points and context shifts in art production and in the related discourse. The focus here is more on the history of ideas than on the consideration of mere stylistic trends. The starting point is always the work of art itself. I interpret art history teaching as a schooling in seeing and reflecting.

Focal points of research: art of the 15th/16th and 20th/21st centuries; in particular, issues of inter-media crossovers in art (optical media and art, action concepts), art and time theory; art and playing.

Aesthetics, Prof. Dr. Dieter Knoell 

The subject of Aesthetics should give students the opportunity to associate their practical training with the discussion of the main art theories of the past and the present. Educational events such as “Art of Perception and Perception of Art” are indications of the double meaning of the term “Aesthetics” that can be observed in the tradition of this subject – as the study of sensual experience, on the one hand, and as a philosophical theory of art, on the other. Against this background, aesthetics must first be freed from the current everyday (mis)understanding or from an overly narrow understanding of the subject, which is much too quick to associate “aesthetic” with beauty and harmony.