Over a number of meetings, the theorist, critic, video artist and occasional curator Mieke Bal (born 1946) engaged in a conversation on the art of teaching with the cultural analyst Jeroen Lutters. Looking for a dialogue that would also touch on the role of visual art, Lutters brought in paintings by Banksy, Rembrandt, Marlene Dumas and George Deem as "teaching objects"--one for each conversation. Lutters asked Bal what these paintings might have...