Hans Sedlmayr (1896–1984): Structural Approach and Pre-Modern Values

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angel Angelov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Structural Approach ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of

The prevailing part of art historians, critics and theoreticians from the mid-1950s even until today feels related to the means of expression of the modernist art trends from the last decade of 19th c. until the end of 1960-s. Modernism has become a sacred text, whose complexity should be interpreted, but not criticized. Sedlmayr’s conception of art is built on moral, religious, aesthetic and political grounds, which are the very reason for the actuality of his works – both in the specialized sphere of art history and in the wider public debate on values. That is why I will analyse his structural approach mainly in relation to his anti-modern conception of art. This is the task of this study. Sedlmayr’s effort to turn art history into a “strict science” is an independent part of his scientific pursuit; it is in relation, but is not subordinate to his conception of modern art. Those publications of his are discussed but only in the specialized literature on history of the methods in humanities, while his conception against modern art acquires an exceptional popularity. Because of that reason his theoretic contribution to the study of art remains in a penumbra. I argue that Sedlmayr’s conception has the following coinciding points with the official understanding of art in the time of socialism: – A denial to estimate art with aesthetic criteria, which the ideologists of socialist realism define as formalism, and Sedlmayr as aesthetism; – In socialism art should represent a positive ideal; Sedlmayr calls this ideal “human measure”; – Art should habituate to morals; – A conviction that the modern art from the end of 19th c. on is decadent; – A criticism against the “dehumanization” of art.

scholarly journals Temptation, Resistance, and Art Objects: On the Lack of Material Theory within Art History before the Material Turn

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Charolotta Krispinsson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Visual Culture Studies ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
Material Turn

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini's painting “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” (1390-1400) serves as a point of departure for this essay. It depicts Saint Anthony during a lapse of self-control as he attempts to resist an alluring mound of gold. Since the mound is in fact made of genuine gold leaves applied to the painting's surface, it works both as a representation of temptation as well as an object of desire affecting the beholder. The aim of this essay is to explore different approaches to materiality before the material turn within the art history discipline by examining two opposing directions within the writing and practice of art history:  the tradition of connoisseurship; and the critique of the fetish within the theoretical apparatus of new art history and visual culture studies of the 1980s and 90s. As an expression of positivism within art history, it is argued that connoisseurship be considered within the context of its empirical practices dealing with objects. What is commonly described as the connoisseur's “taste” or “love for art” would then be just another way to describe the intimate relationship formed between art historians and the very objects under their scrutiny. More than other humanist disciplines, art history is, with the possible exception of archaeology, an object-based discipline. It is empirically anchored in the unruly, deep sea of objects commonly known as the history of art. Still, there has been a lack of in-depth theoretical reflection on the materiality of artworks in the writings of art historians before the material turn. The question however, is not ifthis is so, but rather, why?In this essay, it is suggested that the art history discipline has been marked by a complicated love-hate relationship with the materiality of which the very objects of study, more often than not, are made of; like Saint Anthony who is both attracted to and repelled by the shapeless mass of gold that Lucifer tempts him with. While connoisseurship represents attraction, resistance to the allure of objects can be traced to the habitual critique of fetishism of the first generations of visual culture studies and new art history. It reflects a negative stance towards objects and the material aspect of artworks, which enhanced a conceived dichotomy between thinking critically and analytically in contrast to managing documents and objects in archives and museum depositories. However, juxtaposing the act of thinking with the practice of manual labour has a long tradition in Western intellectual history. Furthermore, it is argued that art history cannot easily be compared to the history of other disciplines because of the simple fact that artworks are typically quite expensive and unique commodities, and as such, they provoke not just aesthetic but also fetishist responses. Thus, this desire to separate art history as a scientific discipline from the fetishism of the art market has had the paradoxical effect of causing art historians to shy away from developing methodologies and theory about materiality as an act of resistance. 

Considering the future of art bibliography: the FAB initiative

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Salomon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Art History ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
The Future ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
Review Current ◽  
Research Institute ◽  
Current Practices

The Future of Art Bibliography (FAB) initiative developed out of various conversations among colleagues in the United States and Europe. Events in the art historical community, including limited funding resources for art libraries and projects internationally, and the cessation of the Getty’s support for the production of the Bibliography of the history of art (BHA) provided the catalyst for the Kress Foundation grant to the Getty Research Institute. A series of international meetings of art librarians, art historians, publishers and information specialists ensued. The goal was to review current practices, take stock of changes, and seriously consider developing more sustainable and collaborative ways of supporting the bibliography of art history in the future.

Approaching the Mughal Past in Indian Art Criticism: The case of MARG (1946 –1963)

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-203
Author(s):  
DEVIKA SINGH
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Art History ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
Art Journal ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Indian Art ◽  
Contemporary Artists

AbstractThe paper examines the model value of the Mughal period in MARG, the leading art journal of 1940s and 1950s India. It combines a discussion of some of the key historiographical questions of Indian art history and the role played by specific art historians, including European exiles who were among the contributors to the journal, with broader questions on the interaction of national cultural identity with global modernism. In this context, the Mughal period—celebrated in MARG for its synthesis of foreign and indigenous styles—was consistently put forward as an example for contemporary artists and architects. From its inception in 1946 until the 1960s the review favoured a return to the spirit of India's prestigious artistic past, but not to its form. Its editorials and articles followed a clearly anti-revivalist and cosmopolitan line. It aimed at redressing misunderstandings that had long undermined the history of Indian art and surmounting the perceived tensions in art and architecture between a so-called Indian style and a modern, international one.

scholarly journals Is Art History of China Useless in a Pandemic?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng He Schöneweiß
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Art History ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Life Crisis ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of

The study of Chinese art has long been a specialised field bridging the disciplines of art history and Chinese studies. This essay challenges, as always in a real-life crisis, the usefulness of art history of China in the current Covid-19 pandemic. The agency of art historians is put under the historiographical grill. Through two brief case studies, the essay argues that art historians, though as mortal and fragile, are actually professionally equipped to strike the core consequences of the pandemic in its social, political, and cultural aspects.

Documenting Latin American art at the Museum of Modern Art Library

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-36
Author(s):  
Taína Caragol
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Art History ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
American Art ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
Latin American Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
Geopolitical Region ◽  
Art Community ◽  
American Art History

This article traces the history of the Latin American holdings of the Museum of Modern Art Library, one of the first institutions outside Latin America to start documenting the art of this geopolitical region, and one of the best research centers on modern Latin American art in the world. This success story dates back to the thirties, when the Museum Library began building a Latin American and Caribbean collection that currently comprises over 15,000 volumes of catalogues and art books. The launch of various research tools and facilities for scholars and the general public in recent years also shows the Museum’s strong commitment not only towards Latin American art history but also to the present and the future of the Latino art community.

Visual Arts: Modern Art

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Art History ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century ◽  
20Th Century Art

The dominant histories of 19th- and 20th-century art in the West have tended to depict modernism as making deep and decisive breaks from religious thought, practices, and institutions. There are good reasons for scholars seeing the history this way. On the one hand, the development of modern art coincided with major sociocultural shifts that deeply reshaped not only religion (as established religious traditions became increasingly contested and pluralized) but also the functions of art itself, which thrived in forms and spaces that seemed significantly detached from religious subjects, patronage, and purposes. On the other hand, there were also significant theoretical factors shaping the ways that religion was presented—or often conspicuously not presented—in the writing of modern art history. An especially strong secularization theory (a sociological thesis positing that a society’s modernization necessarily entails its secularization) has tended to dominate the scholarship of modernism, coupled with a heavy reliance on critical models that privilege highly suspicious hermeneutics (in the lineages of Marxian, Nietzschean, and Freudian critical theory), which tend to dismantle whatever “religious” content persists in modern art into questions of social power, ressentiment, sublimated desire, and so on. In all these ways, religious traditions became largely invisible and unreadable in the history of modernism, even in cases where they were important factors. Since the 1990s, however, several of the key historical and theoretical underpinnings of this depiction of modernism have been increasingly called into question, and a more complicated, ambiguous picture is emerging—one in which modern art and religion remain deeply entangled in fascinating and confusing ways. There are various ways of identifying and understanding these entanglements, which require not only careful reexamination of the particularities of the histories involved but also reconsideration of the interpretive assumptions and priorities through which those histories are construed. There are at least five focal points where the nexuses of art and religion are being reexamined and brought more clearly into view in the histories of modernism—namely, through object-oriented, practice-oriented, artist-oriented, context-oriented, and/or concept-oriented studies of particular instances in those histories. These focal points provide concrete loci for perceiving and exploring the functions, formations, and effects of “religion in modern art”—an inquiry which also can be reversed to explore examples of “modern art in religion,” including instances where major artworks are situated in churches, cathedrals, synagogues, and other religious contexts. There are, however, varying ways that scholars interpret what they find at these focal points and how they discern the larger implications of these particular entanglements of art and religion in the history of modern and contemporary art. These differences are clarified by recognizing at least four interpretive horizons—anthropological, political, spiritual, and theological—within which scholars are understanding these focal points and rereading these histories. Though often diverging in the accounts they produce, these four horizons (and the potential interplay between them) are vital for a continued rethinking of the relations between modern art and religion.

Illies, F. (2019). Just now the sky was blue. Texts on art. Translated by V. Serov. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, Muzey sovremennogo iskusstva ‘Garazh.’ (In Russ.)

2021 ◽  
pp. 286-289
Author(s):  
N. I. Kovalyov
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Common Motif ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Literature ◽  
Historical Periods

The reviewer claims that Florian Illies’ essays demonstrate a perfect balance between pure scholarship and journalism. Despite representing a miscellany of genres (book and exhibition reviews, articles summarising the author’s view of various painters and art historians), the collection proves harmonious due to a common motif of the essays. The book does not draw a strict line between history of literature and art history. Similarly, Illies does not separate art history from the context of the life around art, i. e. the authors’ correspondence, their relationships with their family and friends, fellow artists and patrons. His unconventional view of art history enables Illies to identify interesting overarching subjects which include the problem of the patron’s influence on a work of art and the category of taste. The essayist is particularly interested in ‘second-rank’ authors, who, he suggests, emerge as first-rank in various historical periods.

scholarly journals Enter the Dragon

2019 ◽  
pp. 237-242
Author(s):  
Maria Poprzęcka
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Title I ◽  
Art History ◽  
Academic Life ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
History Of ◽  
Polish Art

The paper is a reminiscence of my first meeting with the colleagues from the Institute of Art History of Adam Mickiewicz University, which took place at an annual conference of the Association of Art Historians in 1974, titled “Reflection on Art.” Choosing an unusual title, I wanted to convey the impetus with which a group of young art historians from Poznań entered the decent and somewhat stagnant stage of Polish art history. The critique they presented was directed against Polish academic institutions, the problematic of the conference, the empty rituals of academic life, etc. Even though I did not accept all their objections, the heated debate suddenly turned out for me to be a liberating factor, stimulating continuous critical thinking which is an antidote for spiritual and intellectual captivity.

scholarly journals But is it art? : the construction and valuation of illustration in Victoria's Island Illustrators Society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Jaleen Grove
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Art History ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Division I ◽  
Traditional Art ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Commercial Art ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
History Of

In Canada, illustration, commercial art, and conservative, traditional art are often spoken of as separate from and opposite to "non-commercial", "contemporary art", a division I argue stems from the older distinction between art and craft but one that can be subverted. Using concepts from Gowans, Greenhalgh, Mortenson, Shiner, and Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production, this thesis traces the sociology and art history of the division between traditional and modern art that led to the formation of the Island Illustrators Society in 1985 in Victoria, British Columbia. I argue illustration is an original, theoretical art form indistinguishable from but alienated by contemporary art, that conservative art is neither static nor irrelevant, and that non-commercial contemporary art is a misnomer. I find the Society challenged the definitions of art and illustration by promoting illustrative fine art and by transcending binary oppositions of conservative and contemporary, commercial and non-commercial.

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