Hordaland Kunstsenter

In his presentation on Master Night, Tor Steffen Espedal will take as his starting point Miroslaw Balka’s How it Is, an artwork that had a relatively short life in the turbine hall at Tate Modern in 2009/10. The work was asking to be categorized as “sublime”. With this work in mind, Espedal will try to outline the concept of sublimity related to contemporary art by examining the meaning of the concept from the 18^th century to our own day. 

Espedal will also ask whether “the sublime” is a relevant aesthetic category in relation to manieristic art, specifically Italian painting from around 1520 to 1600. Can we trace a rhetorical or stylistic transition from the rationality of early and high renaissance to the focus on the indefinable and non-rational in late renaissance or manierist works, in which “the sublime” can be a relevant concept?

The presentation will be held in Norwegian.

Tor Steffen Espedal is MA-student in art history at the University of Bergen. He is also a teaching assistant in the aesthetic course ”from image theory to aesthetics” at the University of Bergen, and works with texts and printed matter. Espedal has been a high school teacher for many years, and has also been involved in educating teachers.

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Master Night is a series of lectures where both MA students and recently graduated art historians present their MA dissertations to a public. With Master Night Hordaland Art Centre wishes to bridge the gap between the academic and practicing art scenes in Bergen, and create a place for interaction between students and professionals. 

Eva Rem Hansen is responsible for this program and Master Night is made possible due to good help from the study committee of Art History at the University of Bergen.