Talks Miami: Helen Molesworth on Art, Love, and Freedom

Helen Molesworth presents in Miami for the first time, sharing excerpts from her upcoming book.

0:00 Introduction + outline of the seminar
2:50 Stories from Helen's history which shaped her relationship to art
9:30 On the discovery of a frame for art that parallels religious faith
13:20 On experiences at museums that shaped her view on their role in society
17:20 On working through a "crash course in museum bureaucracy" + confronting institutional prejudice
20:00 On museums as a sanctuary
23:10 On the insights from existing as both an insider + outside in the art world
27:45 The issues between spirituality + art in the Western world
31:25 Art as a form of intelligence + philosophy
33:12 Great art as an enabler of knowledge vs. the modern worldview of art as entertainment
34:24 The radical permissions art offers that societal convention strips away
36:00 On art's break from the general public in the mid-19th + mid 20th century
37:20 On the impact of the internet age on the art world + the path forward
44:04 On one of art's greatest strengths
45:00 Three ways art produces knowledge and meaning
51:20 Examples of art evaluated from the provided philosophical framework

About Helen Molesworth
Helen Molesworth is an independent curator and the former Chief Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles.
She has written for Artforum, Art Journal, Documents and October among others, and is a recipient of the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Curatorial Excellence.

Video from Talks Miami seminar, February 20, 2019.

Talks Miami provides direct access to the top curators and ideas driving contemporary art today, through a year-long series of conversations presented by Locust Projects and Oolite Arts.