Shakespeare’s As You Like It contemplates an escape from the artificiality, hierarchy, and conventions of society and politics, by disguise and flight into nature and the countryside. This escape from artificiality, however, paradoxically requires artfulness. What then are the true powers of art? Does art “imitate nature”, as Aristotle claimed, or, at its peak, does it express forms of life, creativity, and individual expression that transcend the world as given to us by nature? How do poetry and painting express or change our perception of the world? Does art possess unique forms of insight, or does it mask an inability to account for its own origins? We shall explore these questions directly in the seminar, and indirectly through careful reflection on works of poetry, painting, and photography—all against the aesthetically rich natural and cultural landscape of Santa Fe.

This event is for prospective students.