Kant is “rightly regarded as the founder of modern aesthetics.” That is Harold Osborne, longtime editor of the scholarly British Journal of Aesthetics. Osborne further claims that Kant’s “theory is the most important anticipation of the modern aesthetic outlook in any philosopher before the twentieth century”.
While it’s initially shocking to think that the priggish and uptight Kant has anything to do with the often-nihilistic modern and postmodern art worlds—Kant is arguably the most influential philosopher in the last two centuries—and it’s important for critics and artists to understand the connections.
In the following interview conducted by artist and art critic Jan-Ove Tuv, I discuss Kant’s general philosophy and his philosophy of art.
Related: Kant’s foundational Critique of Pure Reason, in the Philosophers, Explained series.
Sources: Osborne, Aesthetics and Art Theory: An Historical Introduction, E. P. Dutton, 1970, p. 153 and p. 191.