Topic description and stories

Pondering artistic beauty encourages ‘big picture’ thinking

07 May 2025

Psychological experiment suggests actively considering the beauty of art increases abstract thinking and “transformative” emotion – helping us escape...

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Mexican Caste Paintings from the 18th century

When beauty matters: the politics of how we look

25 Aug 2016

Questions of beauty and its politics will be discussed at a summer school and conference next week (30 August to 3 September 2016). Participants will...

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Dr Andy Martin

Beauty and despair

11 Jun 2012

A high level inquiry reported last month that more than half of the British public has a negative body image. Cambridge academic Andy Martin reflects...

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