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Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt (selfportrait).
Lectures of the Cátedra del Prado.
Time – The Invisible Force Visual
Concepts Through History
Academic Chair
Lectures of the Cátedra del Prado.
Lectures of the Cátedra del Prado.
Time – The Invisible Force Visual
Concepts Through History
Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt
Time is invisible. Yet it is always present. “Before” and “after,” and even space itself, would not exist without it, as then, everything would happen all at once. Only time gives us humans and our cultures a historical perspective. History arises out of life, art history out of creative image-making.
Time itself consistently eludes our senses, though its effects are everywhere visible. Art can help us towards a better understanding of this abstract numinosum; because it, too, is at once agent and fact in the sea of time. But how does time manifest itself in works of art—beyond their iconological representation of it as symbol, metaphor, or allegory? What influence does time, as a formative, impulsive force, have on the works themselves? How have lapses, lacunae, and speed inscribed themselves into them? How have these aspects been appreciated and understood at various times in history?
Conceived as an invitation to time-travel along a trajectory of selected exhibits, this year’s Catédra Lectures will offer answers to the questions raised here.
- Sponsored by:
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- Recipients
- University students, researchers, professionals and the general public
- Direction
- Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt
- Organization
- Museo Nacional del Prado
- In- person and online attendance
- It is possible to attend the sessions until all seats are filled or to follow the conference online through the link to the Zoom platform that will be provided for all those enrolled. When enrolling you must choose a type of attendance.
- Contact
- centro.estudios@museodelprado.es
Activity
Holder of the Prado Museum Chair 2025
Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt (selfportrait).
Image historian Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt teaches post-Enlightenment History of Art and Visual Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. She also works as an international appraiser, translator, and exhibition curator. From 1998 until 2013 she collaborated with both The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, Detroit, now at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius. She was arts editor of the journal Janus Head from 2005 to 2012 and a member of the editorial team of the Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte from 2015 to 2023. She is among the co-founders of the Gesellschaft für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft. She has published extensively on her research fields of interest, specifically the avant-garde and diagrammatics, the eye and pseudonyms.
Her publications ‒ some in translation, some in several editions, some award-winning – include Stammbäume der Kunst: Zur Genealogie der Avantgarde (2005); Die Kunst der Diagrammatik: Perspektiven eines neuen bildwissenschaftlichen Paradigmas (2017); Die Chronologiemaschine: Barbeu-Dubourgs Aufbruch in die historiografische Moderne (2022) and Die Augen der Avantgarden: Von der Macht der Blicke in der Moderne (2024).