Writing Art History

Disciplinary Departures

Iversen Margaret, Melville Stephen

Faced with an increasingly media-saturated, globalized culture, art historians have begun to ask themselves challenging and provocative questions about the nature of their discipline. Why did the history of art come into being? Is it now in danger of slipping into obsolescence? And, if so, should we care?

"In Writing Art History", Margaret Iversen and Stephen Melville address these questions by exploring some assumptions at the discipline's foundation. Their project is to excavate the lost continuities between philosophical aesthetics, contemporary theory, and art history through close readings of figures as various as Michael Baxandall, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Lacan, and Alois Riegl. Ultimately, the authors propose that we might reframe the questions concerning art history by asking what kind of writing might help the discipline to better imagine its actual practices – and its potential futures.

About the Author

Margaret Iversen is professor of the history of art at the University of Essex and author of "Beyond Pleasure: Freud, Lacan, Barthes", among other titles.

Stephen Melville is professor emeritus of the history of art at Ohio State University and author of "Seams: Art as Philosophical Context" and other works.

Reviews

"Filled with rich and probing accounts of many of art history's most noted writers, this book shows how, through the writing of art history, deep changes have been encouraged and effected in our modes of contemplation and judgment" – Lydia Goehr, Columbia University

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