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The Reith Lectures

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

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The Reith Lectures: Edgar Wind - Art and Anarchy: Art and the Will

The Fear of Knowledge

18/12/1960

Art and the Will

Edgar Wind - Art and Anarchy

BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Edgar Wind - Art and Anarchy, Art and the Will

Edgar Wind contemplates the influence of the human will over the creation of art.

Edgar Wind contemplates the influence of the human will over the creation of art in his final Reith lecture entitled 'Art and the Will'.

This year's lecturer is the first and current Professor of Art History at Oxford University, Edgar Wind. The German-born British professor specialises in iconology in the Renaissance era. In his Reith Series entitled 'Art and Anarchy', Edgar Wind explores the concepts of creative energies produced through turmoil.

In this lecture entitled 'Art and the Will', Edgar Wind argues that without human spirit, art is merely the sum of mechanical forces. We use our will to seek out art and the artist inflicts his will in the creation of it. Professor Wind goes on to explore the creative role that patrons of artists have played in the art of the past, looking specifically at the Renaissance era. Did artists need the specifications set by patrons in order to create their masterpieces?

The Reith Lectures: Edgar Wind - Art and Anarchy

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Art historian Edgar Wind explores the effect of turmoil on creativity.

Edgar Wind, the first Professor of Art History at Oxford University, examines why and how great art is often produced in turbulent circumstances.

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Art and the Will

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