Talk
How to Do Things With Landscape

The Chicago Center for Caspar David Friedrich Studies Library

Wed, 09/18/2024
6:00 PM Goethe-Institut Chicago

W. J. T. Mitchell has long been fascinated with the human desire to “look at the view.”  With a central focus on Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer Above a Sea of Clouds,” he will survey the great variety the things we do with landscape, from contemplation to conquest. Examples will include Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, early British seafarers in New Zealand, Native Americans and the American frontier, and activist witnesses in the landscapes of Israel/Palestine.

This event accompanies The Chicago Center for Caspar David Friedrich Studies Library, an exhibition of curator Dieter Roelstraete's collection of books, magazines, and records with the Romantic painter's iconic work 'Wanderer Above a Sea of Clouds.'

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

W. J. T. Mitchell
W. J. T. Mitchell is the Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English and Art History at the University of Chicago.  He is the author of many books, including Iconology, Picture Theory, The Last Dinosaur Book, What Do Pictures Want? and Landscape and Power.  He was the editor in chief of Critical Inquiry from 1978 to 2020. 

The exhibition will be open during events and by appointment only on weekdays from 10am-4pm; please email info-chicago@goethe.de to request a viewing time.