Why not study art history?Robert Rauschenberg (1953) Erased De Kooning

Bestist!Second BestistThird Bestist

Carol Gwizdak (2007) Hyacinth Ring (Seed Head, Silver ,Porcelain)

Marianne Brandt (1924) Tea infuser and strainer.

Damien Hirst (2007) Spot Painting

Suitable for Mass ProductionNot Suitable for Mass Production

Marianne Brandt (1924) Tea infuser and strainer. Marcel Breuer (1927-8) Wassily Chair. Walter Gropius (1938-9) Breuer House

RationalformsTurbid, Organic Forms

Sol LeWitt (1968[?]) 142, Metropolitan Museum of Art

FunctionalUseless

IndividualHomogenous

Environmentally Conscious

Mitchell Joachim (2006) The Fab Tree Hab

Art for Art’s SakeAnonymous (and commonplace)

Jenny Holzer (1986)Protect me from what I want. From the Truisms series. Spectacolor electronic sign. Times Square, New York

Why not study art history?

Moving towards ‘flatness’Impure

Clifford Still (1948) Clifford Still [?]

Exhibit ‘Grace’Overworked

Art HistoryPrivileges Painting (and Sculpture)Aesthetic (concerned with forms and styles)Great ArtistsLinear Development(Taste)Art History?

Values

“I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it. At the moment if I did certain things people would look at me and say ‘Fuck off’. But after a while you can get away with things.” Damien Hirst 1990, quoted in (Stallabrass 1999, p.31)

Fame ≠ Good Artist/ Designer/ Craftsperson££££££ ≠ Good Art/ Design/ Craft

“Hirst said that he only painted five spot paintings himself (there are about 300) because, ‘I couldn’t be fucking arsed doing it.’ He described his efforts as ’shite.’ ‘They’re shite compared to … the best person who ever painted spots for me was Rachel. She’s brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant. The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel.’” Stephen Foster, Blog (2007)

QuestionValues

Canon: A list that champions key designers, craftspeople or artists, key texts and keys works over and above others.

Ideology: An interpretative scheme made up of values that shapes the way we organise information.

Institutions and ‘sharing’ values

Discourse: the total some of (organised) information on a particular subject.

Why not study art history?

From left: Raine Hodgson (2009) [photo John McGregor]; Julie Chapman (2009) Ephemeral Pleasures [photo John McGregor]; Lottie Lindsay (2009) Hills Emit Hope [photo Tom Nolan].

Farty?

Why not art history?ECA students are creative in lots of different waysThe world is full of visual representationsTraditional Art History might not help your understanding of contemporary artStudying Art History (alone) wouldn’t prepare you for being contemporary practitionersVisual Cultural Studies couldinclude aspects of Art History, but as part of richer and broader field of study

Why not study art history?

First Published in 1957

Eduardo Paolozzi, BUNK! (1971)

Andy Warhol (1968) Brillo Box. First Exhibited in a series in the Stable Gallery, New York.

Clockwise from top left: Caravaggio (1602-3) Doubting Thomas. Potsdam. Jackson Pollock (1952) Blue Poles number 11. Turner, JMW (1842) Streamer in a Snowstorm. Tate London. Diego Velazquez (1656) Las Meninas. Prado Madrid

Andy Warhol (1968) Brillo Box. First Exhibited in a series in the Stable Gallery, New York.

Marcel Duchamp (1917) Fountain

Neither of these books contained a single reference to female artists when first published!!!First Published in 1961First Published in 1962

Mary Beth Edelson (1972) Some Living American Women

“The feminist critique of art history began by berating the discipline for its discriminatory exclusion of women artists. This was a necessary but limited tactic. For art history as a discourse actively produces its meanings by exclusion, repression and subordination...” (Pollock 1988, p.128)

“The modern system of art is not an essence or a fate but something we have made. Art as we have generally understood it is a European invention barely two hundred years old.” (Larry Shiner 2001, p.3)Gustave Courbet (1855) The Painter’s Studio

Lots of other important things... !!!

Criticisms of Art HistoryNarrowness of its subject matterConcentration on individual artistsRestricted methods:StyleIconographyQualityCanonDatingBiographyUniformity of CurriculaIgnoring social context of artInattention to theoretical changeFernire, Eric (ed.) (1995) Art History and Its Methods. London, Phaidon Press Ltd.

To be continued ... by you!