Art History: A Very Short Introduction – 5. Thinking about Art History

The relationship between Art and thought can be a complex one. ‘Thinking about Art History’ discusses the impact various philosophical schools and psychoanalytic theory have had on the way in which we think about Art History and the role, meaning, and interpretation of Art. It introduces the ideas of such key thinkers as G. W. F. Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida in order to show how they have interacted with Art History, not least in regard to the emergence of social histories of Art and feminist Art History.

Art History: A Very Short Introduction – 4. Presenting Art History

‘Presenting Art History’ considers the different ways of presenting Art History, and especially the importance of the gallery or museum. It maps out the development of collections from the cabinet of curiosities to the private and corporate sponsor and collector of today and discusses the impact the amassing of objects has had on their perceived value and on the histories of Art, and how writing about objects can affect their ‘value’. The emergence of the prestige building by a star architect to house Art collections has become an increasingly global phenomenon, which along with ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions has had a significant impact on the presentation and understanding of Art History.

Art History: A Very Short Introduction – 3. A global Art History

Are the practices of Western Art History appropriate for the study of Art from cultures outside its geographical boundaries and conventional timeframe? The bias in this interpretation of the subject opens up the questions of the importance of the canon in Art History and how we view non-figurative, primitive, and naive Art. ‘A global Art History?’ considers a range of different examples of Artistic practice from around the world, including the sculpture of the Dogon people of Mali and the calligraphy of Wu Zhen, who was active during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). It also discusses what is meant by the ‘primitive’ Arts of Oceania, Africa, and North and South America.

LibGuides: Art History: Overview

This guide supports the Art History Major and those taking Art History classes at Otterbein University. Sub-pages will be included to meet the needs of individual classes.

LibGuides: Art History: Books

This guide supports the Art History Major and those taking Art History classes at Otterbein University. Sub-pages will be included to meet the needs of individual classes.

LibGuides: Art History: Articles

This guide supports the Art History Major and those taking Art History classes at Otterbein University. Sub-pages will be included to meet the needs of individual classes. Great for literature reviews and finding professional journals

[Contribution to] Decolonizing Art History

A range of Art historians, curators and Artists were asked to respond to a series of questions that consider some of the recent calls to ‘decolonize Art History’. Marsha Meskimmon was one of the 30 contributors to this Article who responded to the following questions:What is the historical specificity of current calls to decolonize Art History? How are they different from previous challenges to the discipline (such as postcolonialism, feminism, queer studies, Marxism)?What is your understanding of decolonizing Art History now? What does a decolonized Art History look like? How should it be written/practised?How might the decolonization of Art History impact upon your own area of research/practice? What would be produced from it? Might anything have to be jettisoned?Where should decolonization in relation to Art History happen? What strategies might different spaces for decolonization demand?

Decolonizing Art History: A Questionnaire

When, in 2015, students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa demanded the removal of a statue of British colonial and diamond merchant Cecil Rhodes from their campus, they initiated what was to become a global call to ‘decolonize the university’. In the same year, students at University College London began to ask the question: why is my curriculum white? Other public sector cultural institutions soon joined the chorus in an overdue acknowledgement that unspoken colonial legacies had for too long upheld and promulgated white privilege. The role of public sculpture as a catalyst for political debate and change has a long tradition within Art‘s histories. It serves to remind us of the centrality of the discipline in promoting and maintaining dominant cultural values; and yet it also enables us to interrogate them as historically located and subject to inevitable temporal mutation. Whilst postcolonial studies and critical race studies have been informing and challenging the shape of Art History for several decades, new generations of students, scholars, critics, curators, collectors, Artists and audiences are seeking radical re‐evaluations of the academy and those cultural institutions who hold themselves up as standard‐bearers of our collective cultural heritage. But, what, if anything, is specific about the current moment’s demands to reassess how universities, museums, and galleries teach, research, collect and exhibit? How can Art historians, curators, collectors, museum directors, Artists and writers respond to the call to decolonize Art History? How can we draw from the rich legacy of postcolonial, feminist, queer and Marxist perspectives within Art History, and what are the new theoretical perspectives that are needed?

Writing these questions within the context of the UK, the backdrop of Brexit cannot be ignored, along with the impact of austerity and precarity in the university and museum sectors, and the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in response to both economic and political migration. There is a sense of instability in the political landscape, and conversations are often harder to hear than accusations, condemnation or dismissal. This is coupled with an increasing sense of Art History being an embattled discipline, an unnecessary luxury for many students faced with tens of thousands of pounds of student debt. Yet conversely some of the loudest voices in the conversations around decolonizing Art and its histories have been from young Artists, scholars, curators and students, demanding that the institutions from which they feel excluded stArt to listen. For many of us working within (and alongside) the discipline of Art History, these calls have asked us to reckon with what we do as teachers, scholars and curators. In order to continue this conversation, we have asked a range of Art historians, curators and Artists to respond to a series of questions that consider some of the recent calls to ‘decolonize Art History’. The responses vary in format, length and focus. We offered some guidelines regarding length but otherwise were open to the ways in which the questions were addressed. Continuing the vision for Art History set out by Price in her inaugural editorial in February 2018, the following seeks to give space to some of the conversations that many of us are having within and between our institutions. The questionnaire format indicates that there is not one way to ‘decolonize Art History’, but rather it is a debate that the editorial board of Art History, alongside many of our colleagues in the discipline, feels needs public discussion. We publish the questions and a selection of the responses below.

What is the historical specificity of current calls to decolonize Art History? How are they different from previous challenges to the discipline (such as postcolonialism, feminism, queer studies, Marxism)?

What is your understanding of decolonizing Art History now? What does a decolonized Art History look like? How should it be written/practised?

How might the decolonization of Art History impact upon your own area of research/practice? What would be produced from it? Might anything have to be jettisoned?

Where should decolonization in relation to Art History happen? What strategies might different spaces for decolonization demand?

Creative Writing and Art History

Creative Writing and Art History considers the ways in which the writing of Art History intersects with creative writing. Essays range from the analysis of historical examples of Art historical writing that have a creative element to examinations of contemporary modes of creative writing about Art.