Professor Peter Osborne
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Humanities
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
- Penrhyn Road
Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy
About
I studied Philosophy and Economics at the University of Bristol in the late 1970s and took an MA and a DPhil in Philosophy at the University of Sussex (The Carnival of Philosophy: Philosophy, Politics and Positive Science in Hegel and Marx).
From 1992 to 2010, I taught post-Kantian Philosophy and Art Theory at Middlesex University, mainly to postgraduates. In 1995, I founded the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP). In the summer of 2010, I moved to Kingston with three of my colleagues in the CRMEP, where I taught postgraduate programmes and PhD students. From 1983 to 2016, I was an editor of the journal Radical Philosophy.
I have held Visiting professorships at the University of Paris-8 (2012, 2014, 2019), The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm (2015) and Yale School of Art (2017).
Qualifications
- BSc in Philosophy and Economics (Bristol)
- MA in Philosophy (Sussex)
- DPhil in Philosophy (Sussex)
Domains
Courses taught
My research interests are in Philosophies of Time, History and Experience; Philosophy of Art: historical ontology of the artwork, philosophical criticism, postconceptual art and global comparativism; Transdisciplinarity in the arts and humanities; Frankfurt Critical Theory: Benjamin and Adorno; Modern European Philosophy: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger.
My most recent book is Crisis as Form, which appeared from Verso in September 2022. I am currently working on a monograph that rereads Marx's Capital from the standpoint of post-Kantian European Philosophy, focusing on its articulation of various categories of time and the subject. I am also developing a grant project on the Historical Ontology of Contemporary Art.
Publications
Interesting art
Osborne, Peter, 2024, New Left Review, 150 pp 156-168, Published
The planet as political subject?
Osborne, Peter, 2024, New Left Review (145), Published
[Contribution to the symposium] What is radical?
Osborne, Peter, 2022, ARTMargins (10), 3 pp 72-74, E-pub ahead of print
Ilusoes de totalidade: a contemporaneidade global e a condicao do museu = Illusions of totality : global contemporaneity and the condition of the museum
Osborne, Peter, 2018, MODOS - Historia da Arte (2), 3 pp 91-100, Published
Redemption through discourse?
Osborne, Peter, 2017, New Left Review (108), Published
Die Idee der postkonzeptuellen Kunst (und Musik) = The idea of postconceptual art (and music)
Osborne, Peter, 2016, MusikTexte : Schriften fur neue Musik, 151, Published
Arte contemporanea e arte pos-conceitual
Osborne, Peter, 2016, Poiesis (17), 27 pp 39-54, Published
Introduction
Osborne, Peter, 2016, Radical Philosophy, 196 pp 6-8, Published
The Kabakov effect: 'Moscow conceptualism' in the history of contemporary art
Osborne, Peter, 2016, Afterall : A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry, 42, Published
Gillian Rose and Marxism
Osborne, Peter, 2015, Telos (2015), 173 pp 55-67, Published
El archivo como vida después de la vida [Archive as Afterlife]
Osborne, Peter, 2015, Concreta, 6 pp 38-49, Published
Problematizing disciplinarity, transdisciplinary problematics
Osborne, Peter, 2015, Theory, Culture & Society (32), 5-6 pp 3-35, Published
The distributed image = Das Verteilte Bild
Osborne, Peter, 2015, Texte zur Kunst, 99 pp 74-87, Published
Futures Present: Lite, Dark and Missing
Osborne, Peter, 2015, Radical Philosophy, 191 pp 39-46, Published
Out of sync: Tomba's Marx and the problem of a multi-layered temporal dialectic
Osborne, Peter, 2015, Historical Materialism (23), 4 pp 39-48, Published
'Art' versus 'Image'?
Osborne, Peter, 2014, Texte zur Kunst, 95 pp 52-55, Published
Education should be a right for all
Dixon, Paul, Favretto, Ilaria, Finn, Peter, Smart, Jackie, Spencer, Philip, Stockhammer, Engelbert, Stuart, John, Suess, Eleanor, Giaxoglou, Korina, Goldsmith, Carlie, Hallward, Peter, Hawkins, Sue, Swift, Allan, Upstone, Sara, Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic, Wells, Julian, Wilson, Scott, Haywood, Peter, Higginbottom, Andrew, Ichijo, Atsuko, Isaac, Marina, Jensen, Meg, Kayyali, Reem, Kettyle, Ann, Lambrou, Marina, Latimer, Amanda, Linton, Marisa, Lipsedge, Karen, Malabou, Catherine, O Maoilearca, John, McQuillan, Martin, Micklethwaite, Paul, Morgan Wortham, Simon, O'Brien, Catherine, Blackburn, Robert, Botting, Fred, Brady, Mary, Osborne, Peter, Pinnock, Winsome, Piper, Jason, Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, Cinpoes, Radu, Coultas, Valerie, Dines, Martin, Caygill, Howard, Chadwick, Howard, Chanter, Tina, Roberts, Mike, Rogers, David, Sandford, Stella, Searby, Michael, Siddiki, Jalal Uddin, Ponto, Maria, Raphael, Sam, Reid, Trish, Agnew, Eadaoin, Alliez, Eric and Auerbach, Paul, 2014, The Guardian, Published
The postconceptual condition, or, the cultural logic of high capitalism today
Osborne, Peter, 2014, Radical Philosophy, 184 pp 19-27, Published
Temporalization as transcendental aesthetics: avant-garde, modern, contemporary
Osborne, Peter, 2013, Nordic Journal of Aesthetics (23), 44-45, Published
More than everything: Zizek's Badiouian Hegel
Osborne, Peter, 2013, Radical Philosophy, 177 pp 19-25, Published
Guattareuze? (Book Review of: Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: intersecting lives by Francois Dosse)
Osborne, Peter, 2011, New Left Review, 69 pp 139-151, Published
Walter Benjamin
Osborne, Peter and Charles, Matthew, 2011, FEMS Microbiology Reviews (Spring), Published
A sudden topicality: Marx, Nietzsche and the politics of crisis
Osborne, Peter, 2010, Radical Philosophy, 160 pp 19-26, Published
Infinite exchange: the social ontology of the photographic image.
Osborne, Peter, 2010, Philosophy of Photography (1), 1 pp 59-68, Published
An image of romanticism - fragment and project: from Schlegel's 'Athenaeum Fragments' to LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art'
Osborne, Peter, 2009, Verksted #11: Sol LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art': manuscript and draft materials 1968-69. pp 5-27, Published
Art after photography, after conceptual art
Osborne, Peter, 2008, Radical Philosophy, 150 pp 36-51, Published
Marx and the philosophy of time
Osborne, Peter, 2008, Radical Philosophy, 147 pp 15-22, Published
Living with contradictions: the resignation of Chris Gilbert and the presentation of politics in recent curatorial practice
Osborne, Peter, 2007, Afterall (16) pp 108-113, Published
Ou est l'oeuvre d'art? l'art, l'architecture et l'espace de l'oeuvre post-conceptuelle
Osborne, Peter, 2007, Multitudes (HS1) pp 87-112, Published
Neo-classic: Alain Badiou's Being and Event
Osborne, Peter, 2007, Radical Philosophy, 142 pp 19-29, Published
Imaginary radicalisms: notes on the libertarianism of contemporary art
Osborne, Peter, 2007, Verksted #8: ISMS: recuperating political radicality in contemporary art: I. constructing the political in contemporary art pp 9-35, Published
The dreambird of experience: Utopia, possibility, boredom
Osborne, Peter, 2006, Radical Philosophy, 137 pp 36-44, Published
Elmgreen and Dragset's the Welfare Show: a historical perspective
Osborne, Peter, 2006, Canadian Entomologist pp 19-40, Published
Whoever speaks of culture speaks of administration as well
Osborne, Peter, 2006, Cultural Studies (20), 1 pp 33-47, Published
On comparability: Kant and the possibility of comparative studies
Osborne, Peter, 2005, Boundary 2 (32), 2 pp 3-22, Published
Art beyond aesthetics: philosophical criticism, art history and contemporary art
Osborne, Peter, 2004, Art History (27), 4 pp 651-670, Published
The reproach of abstraction
Osborne, Peter, 2004, Radical Philosophy, 127 pp 21-28, Published
Interpreting the world - September 11, cultural criticism and the intellectual Left
Osborne, Peter, 2003, Radical Philosophy, 117 pp 2-12, Published
Images abstraites. Signe, image et l'esthetique dans la peinture de Gerhard Richter
Osborne, Peter, 2001, La Part de l'Oeil (17/18) pp 228-239, Published
Non-places and the spaces of art
Osborne, Peter, 2001, The Journal of Architecture (6), 2 pp 183-194, Published
Review article: Installation, performance, or what?
Osborne, Peter, 2001, Oxford Art Journal (24), 2 pp 147-154, Published
Modernism as translation
Osborne, Peter, 2001, Traces: a multilingual series of cultural theory and translation (1) pp 319-329, Published
Radicalism and philosophy
Osborne, Peter, 2000, Radical Philosophy, 103 pp 6-11, Published
The other within: rethinking psychoanalysis
Osborne, Peter and Fletcher, John, 2000, Radical Philosophy, 102 pp 31-41, Published
Remember the future? The Communist Manifesto as historical and cultural form
Osborne, Peter, 1998, Socialist Register (34) pp 190-204, Published
Times (modern), modernity (conservative): notes on the persistence of a temporal motif
Osborne, Peter, 1996, New Formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics, 28 pp 132-141, Published
Tactics, ethics, or temporality?: Heidegger's politics reviewed
Osborne, Peter, 1995, Radical Philosophy, 70 pp 16-28, Published
The politics of time
Osborne, Peter, 1994, Radical Philosophy, 68 pp 3-9, Published
A Marxism for the postmodern?: Jameson's Adorno
Osborne, Peter, 1992, New German Critique, 56 pp 171-192, Published
Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological, category
Osborne, Peter, 1992, New Left Review (I/192) pp 65-84, Published
Afterlives: transcendentals, universals, others
(2022). Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: (CRMEP BOOKS) [Published]
Crisis as form
Osborne, Peter (2022). London U.K.: [Published]
Thinking art: materialisms, labours, forms
(2020). Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: (CRMEP Books) [Published]
Capitalism: concept, idea, image : aspects of Marx's 'Capital' today
(2019). Kingston, U.K.: (CRMEP Books) [Published]
The postconceptual condition: critical essays
Osborne, Peter (2018). London, U.K.: [Published]
Anywhere or not at all: the philosophy of contemporary art
Osborne, Peter (2013). London, U.K.: [Published]
Spheres of action: art and politics
(2013). London, U.K.: [Published]
The state of things
(2012). Oslo, Norway: (Office for Contemporary Art Norway) [Published]
El arte mas alla de la estetica: ensayos filosoficos sobre el arte contemporaneo
Osborne, Peter (2010). Murcia, Spain: [Published]
ISMS: recuperating political radicality in contemporary art 2. Populism and genre
(2008). Oslo, Norway: (Office for Contemporary Art Norway) [Published]
ISMS: recuperating political radicality in contemporary art 1. Constructing the political in contemporary art
(2007). Oslo, Norway: (Office for Contemporary Art Norway) [Published]
Art of welfare
(2006). Oslo, Norway: (Office for Contemporary Art Norway) [Published]
How to read Marx
Osborne, Peter (2005). London, U.K.: (Granta) [Published]
Walter Benjamin: critical evaluations in cultural theory
(2004). London, U.K.: [Published]
Conceptual art
(2002). London, U.K.: (Phaidon) [Published]
Philosophies of race and ethnicity
(2002). London, U.K.: [Published]
From an aesthetic point of view: philosophy, art and the senses
(2000). London, U.K.: [Published]
Philosophy in cultural theory
Osborne, Peter (2000). London, U.K.: [Published]
The politics of time: modernity and avant-garde
Osborne, Peter (1995). London, U.K.: [Published]
Knowledge, truth, history: contemporary art and the problem of art-historical periodisation
Osborne, Peter (2023). In: Fox, James, Simonti, Vid, (eds.), Manchester, U.K.: pp 111-130 [Published]
No going back - but not forward to there either: once more on art and/as research
Osborne, Peter (2021). In: Slager, Henk, Balkema, Annette W., (eds.), Utrecht, The Netherlands: [Published]
Imperial Hangover: a conversation between Roger M. Buergel and Peter Osborne
Osborne, Peter and Buergel, Roger M. (2020). In: Amanshauser, Hildegund, Bradley, Kimberly, (eds.), Vienna, Austria: pp 191-204 [Published]
Adorno and Marx
Osborne, Peter (2020). In: Gordon, Peter E., Hammer, Espen, Pensky, Max, (eds.), Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell pp 303-319 [Published]
Notes on form
Osborne, Peter (2020). In: Osborne, Peter, (eds.), Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: CRMEP Books pp 159-179 [Published]
Osovremenivayaklassiku / klassitsiziruyasovremennost = Contemporizing the classical / classicizing the contemporary
Osborne, Peter (2019). In: Grachikova, Julia, Shishko, Olga, Yuzhakova, Elizaveta, (eds.), Moscow, Russia: pp 18-23 [Published]
The exhibition-form and the space-time of the artwork: a retroactive ontology. A conversation with Peter Osborne
Osborne, Peter (2019). In: Garcia, Tristan, Normand, Vincent, (eds.), Berlin, Germany: pp 269-277 [Published]
The image is the subject: once more on the temporalities of image and act
Osborne, Peter (2019). In: Goerling, Reinhold, Gronau, Barbara, Schwarte, Ludger, (eds.), Berlin, Germany: pp 124-137 [Published]
Working the contemporary: history as a project of crisis, today
Osborne, Peter (2019). In: de Assis, Paulo, Schwab, Michael, (eds.), Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press pp 135-146 [Published]
Capitalism: concept, idea, image
Osborne, Peter (2019). In: Osborne, Peter, Alliez, Éric, Russell, Eric-John, (eds.), Kingston, U.K.: CRMEP Books pp 3-18 [Published]
Anachronismo Feliz: Luis Camnitzer, Arte Conceptual y Politica = Happy anachronism : Luis Camnitzer, conceptual art and politics
Osborne, Peter (2018). In: Pinteno, Alicia, (eds.), Madrid, Spain: pp 46-73 [Published]
Dialectics of taste and non-taste: archive as afterlife and life of art
Osborne, Peter (2018). In: Quinn, Malcolm, Beech, David, Lehnert, Michael, Tulloch, Carol, Wilson, Stephen, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge pp 49-62 [Published]
Every other year is always this year: contemporaneity and the biennial form
Osborne, Peter (2015). In: Esche, Charles, Eilat, Galit, Enguita Mayo, Nuria, Lafuente, Pablo, Proenca, Luiza, Sagiv, Oren, Seroussi, Benjamin, (eds.), São Paulo, Brazil: pp 15-27 [Published]
Dialectical ontology of art: Xavier Le Roy's ‟Retrospective” in/as contemporary art
Osborne, Peter (2014). In: Cvejic, Bojana, (eds.), Paris, France: pp 103-111 [Published]
Illusions of totality: global contemporaneity and the condition of the museum
Osborne, Peter (2014). In: Muzyczuk, Daniel, Polit, Pawel, (eds.), Lodz, Poland: pp 426-443 [Published]
Purely financial. Question de philosophie
Alliez, Eric and Osborne, Peter (2014). In: Cassin, Barbara, (eds.), Paris, France: pp 43-64 [Published]
The rhetoric of display
Osborne, Peter (2014). In: Deliss, Cl├®mentine, Yvette, Mutumba, (eds.), Zurich, Switzerland: pp 167-200 [Published]
October and the problem of formalism
Osborne, Peter (2013). In: Lejeune, Anael, Mignon, Olivier, Pirenne, Raphael, (eds.), Brussels, Belgium: pp 180-195 [Published]
Abstrakte Bilder: Zeichen, Abbild und Asthetik in Gerhard Richters Malerei
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: Elger, Dietmar, Kuster, Kerstin, (eds.), Koln, Germany: pp 161-175 [Published]
An Interminable Avalanche of Categories: Medium, Concept and Abstraction in the work of Robert Smithson [or Against "Sculpture"]
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: Gaitan, Juan A., Schafhausen, Nicolaus, Szewczyk, Monika, (eds.), Berlin, Germany: pp 132-151 [Published]
Expecting the unexpected: beyond the 'horizon of expectation'
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: Hlavajova, Maria, Sheikh, Simon, Winder, Jill, (eds.), Utrecht, Netherlands: pp 112-128 [Published]
(Jeff Wall and...) Conceptual art
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: De Wolf, Hans, (eds.), Brussels, Belgium: pp 138 [Published]
Malerei der Negation: Gerhard Richters Negative
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: Elger, Dietmar, Kuster, Kerstin, (eds.), Koln, Germany: pp 148-160 [Published]
Philosophy after theory: transdisciplinarity and the new
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: Elliott, Jane, Attridge, Derek, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: pp 19-33 [Published]
The fiction of the contemporary: speculative collectivity and transnationalism in The Atlas Group
Osborne, Peter (2011). In: Avanessian, Armen, Skrebowski, Luke, (eds.), Berlin, Germany: pp 101-123 [Published]
Yardsticks: when will the postwar end?
Osborne, Peter (2011). Santiago de Compostella, Spain: pp 33-39 [Published]
Modernism and philosophy
Osborne, Peter (2010). In: Brooker, Peter, Gasiorek, Andrzej, Longworth, Deborah, Thacker, Andrew, (eds.), Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press pp 388-409 [Published]
'The truth will be known when the last witness is dead': art as evidence, or, history not memory
Osborne, Peter (2010). In: Merewether, Charles, Potts, John, (eds.), Manchester, U.K.: [Published]
Abstract images: sign, image and aesthetic in Gerhard Richter's painting
Osborne, Peter (2009). In: Buchloh, Benjamin H. D., (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 95-112 [Published]
Modernisms and mediations
Osborne, Peter (2009). In: Halsall, Francis, Jansen, Julia Alejandra, O'Connor, Tony, (eds.), Stanford, U.S.A.: pp 163-177 [Published]
Occasionalism
Osborne, Peter (2009). In: Faldbakken, Matias, (eds.), Birmingham, U.K.: pp 44-71 [Published]
Starting up all over again: time and existence in some conceptual art of the 1960s
Osborne, Peter (2009). In: Eleey, Peter, (eds.), Minneapolis, U.S.A.: pp 91-106 [Published]
Philosophy and contemporary art after Adorno and Deleuze: an exchange
Osborne, Peter and Alliez, Eric (2008). In: Garnett, Robert, Hunt, Andrew, (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 35-64 [Published]
Uberstezung: zwishen philosophie und kulturtheorie
Osborne, Peter and Buden, Boris (2008). In: Buden, Boris, Nowotny, Stefan, (eds.), Vienna, Austria: pp 185-196 [Published]
Where is the work of art?
Osborne, Peter (2007). In: Whittaker, E., Landrum, A., (eds.), Bath, U.K.: pp 13-32 [Published]
The power of assembly: art, world, industry
Osborne, Peter (2006). In: Merewether, Charles, (eds.), Sydney, Australia: pp 125-128 [Published]
Art as displaced urbanism: notes on a new constructivism of the exhibition form
Osborne, Peter (2004). In: Kuzma, Marta, Gioni, Massimiliano, (eds.), Spain: pp 64-77 [Published]
Distracted reception: time, art, and technology
Osborne, Peter (2004). In: Morgan, Jessica, Muir, Gregor, (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 66-75 [Published]
Photography in an expanding field: distributive unity and dominant form
Osborne, Peter (2003). In: Green, David, (eds.), Maidstone, U.K.: pp 63-70 [Published]
Versuche der Vergangenheit einzuholen. Konservative Modernitat und regressive Modernisierung in Grossbritannien
Osborne, Peter (2003). In: Kurnumaki, Jussi, Polenen, Kari, (eds.), Jyvaskyla, Finland: pp 199-211 [Published]
Everywhere, or not at all: Victor Burgin and conceptual art
Osborne, Peter (2002). In: Roberts, Catsou, (eds.), Bristol, U.K.: pp 62-75 [Published]
Greedy Kunst
Osborne, Peter (2002). In: Merck, Mandy, Townsend, Chris, (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 40-59 [Published]
Introduction: philosophies of race and ethnicity
Sandford, Stella and Osborne, Peter (2002). In: Sandford, Stella, Osborne, Peter, (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 1-9 [Published]
Introduction: From an aesthetic point of view
Osborne, Peter (2000). In: Osborne, Peter, (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 1-10 [Published]
Conceptual art and/as philosophy
Osborne, Peter (1999). In: Newman, Michael, Bird, Jon, (eds.), London, U.K.: pp 47-65 [Published]
Introduction: Transdiciplinarity
Osborne, Peter(2010). [Published]
"It is necessary to be absolutely modern": Adorno's categorical imperative of philosophy
Osborne, Peter(2008). [Published]