Lecture: Mountains and the Quest for the Sublime – Dr Andrea Bubenik
A Bigger View public program
Sun 9 Mar 2025
Lecture: Mountains and the Quest for the Sublime – Dr Andrea Bubenik
Invoking fear and awe, inspiring us to ascend and transcend, mountains are crucial to the idea of the sublime. From the magic and holy mountains portrayed by novelist Thomas Mann and filmmaker Alejandor Jodorowsky, to the role of mountaineering in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, these sites of elevation have long been catalysts for some of the most dramatic scenes of human contemplation and endeavour. In this paper I will focus on the special role of mountains to a history of art and the sublime, and especially the fascinating dialogue between Eugene von Guerard’s Mount Kosciusko (1883) and Imant Tillers’ Mount Analogue (1985), shown together for the first time at HOTA.
Image credit: Installation view of Mount Analogue by Imants Tillers photographed by Charlie Hillhouse.
#Speaker Bio
Dr Andrea Bubenik is an Associate Professor of Art History at The University of Queensland. Her expertise is in Renaissance and Baroque art and the continued reception of early modern visual culture. Her books include The Persistence of Melancholia (editor, 2019), Perspectives on Wenceslaus Hollar (co-edited with Anne Thackray, 2016), and Reframing Albrecht Dürer (2013). She was the curator of the exhibitions Ecstasy: Baroque and Beyond (2017) and Five Centuries of Melancholia (2014), both held at the UQ Art Museum.
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