Erbil, Tuesday (May 5, 2026)
Today, Dr. Venus Ismail Bakr delivered a scientific seminar entitled “Artistic Pleasure in the Thought of Susan Langer,” highlighting the fundamental role of artistic pleasure in shaping aesthetic awareness and explaining how theoretical knowledge can be connected to artistic practice.
The seminar provided a detailed discussion of the intellectual and emotional dimensions of the concept of artistic pleasure. It was explained that evaluating works of art is not merely a process of seeing, but rather a profound understanding of the symbolic system that Susanne Langer established as a foundation of art, in which human emotions are expressed in forms beyond the limits of language.
The seminar also focused on the intellectual relationship between the artist and symbolic forms, presenting the artist as the creator of symbolic structures. It emphasized that art is not a mere imitation of reality, but a reconstruction of reality through deep emotional meaning. In this process, the audience must go beyond colors, lines, and rhythms to reach what Langer described as “organized feeling,” the essence of aesthetic experience.
The seminar emphasized that, from Langer’s perspective, creative artistic methods provide a cognitive opportunity for deeper psychological and emotional readings of artworks. This intellectual exploration demonstrated that art is a unique symbolic tool for expressing the hidden dimensions of human experience and transforming emotions into visible forms that offer conscious aesthetic pleasure.
