Bart Verschaffel is a philosopher and Professor of Theory of Architecture and Architectural Criticism at Ghent University in Belgium. He has published widely in the fields of Architectural Theory, Aesthetics, Visual Arts and Philosophy of Culture. In addition, he has curated exhibitions, authored essays and written documentary film scripts on artists such as Giambattista Piranesi, Anthony Gormley and Thierry De Cordier. His published books include What Is Real? What Is True? Picturing Figures and Faces (A&S/books, 2021), Mock Humanity! Two Essays on James Ensor’s Grotesques (A&S/Books-Plantin, 2018). He serves as director of the VANDENHOVE Centre for Architecture and Art at Ghent University, where he oversees the Charles Vandenhove art collection.

An anthology of essays by one of Belgium’s most original art theorists. As if looking at society with that same generous mockery that characterized Flemish painters from Bruegel all the way to Ensor, Bart Verschaffel’s prose follows the meandering and often contradictory movements of visual desire.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Art as a Form of UnderstandingFirst Ideas on Art, Being Moved and CriticismCritical?ArtWhat Art Can Do (Malpertuis by Jean Ray)On the Pleasure of Finding What Is Hidden (With Hidden Noise by Marcel Duchamp)Memoria: Memory Work and the ‘Conversation of Mankind’Aspects of ArtistryOn Laughter, Opinions and Artistic FreedomNotes on the Work of Art as a GiftBeing an Artist Is an Art in Itself: On the ‘First Work’ and the Notion of ‘Oeuvre’Double-speak; Elementary AestheticsOn Splendour and Modern BeautyFatal Truths: Notes on the Beauty ExperienceOn the Aesthetic Gaze, Beauty and the Two Sources of Ugliness