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Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of Art History
Spring Semester 2022
Image, Object, Text: Theories and Methods in Art History and Visual Studies
Code: DU1905 Credits: 8
SEMINAR TASKS
During the course you are required to prepare an oral presentation of about 15-20 minutes, based
on one of the tasks and readings outlined below. The texts have been chosen because of the
methodological and conceptual questions they raise. When preparing your presentation, please
focus on this aspect of the text. Your presentation should be based on a PowerPoint, with images
and examples to illustrate your arguments.
The presentation will not count towards the final assessment of the course, but it is an opportunity
for you to undertake preliminary work for the course and to gain feedback on how well you
understand the themes and ideas being explored in the course.
You will be given informal written feedback on your presentation.
24th
February ART HISTORY AS A "SCIENCE": OBSERVATION AND THE ROLE OF THEORY
3rd
March CANON WARS: THE OBJECTS AND VALUES OF ART HISTORY
Task 1: ‘Any assault on the canon must therefore begin by unmasking this
fetishized image of cultural sanctity and the fictitious creed of immaculate
classification’ (Christopher Steiner). What are Steiner’s main criticisms of
the idea of the art historical canon?
Reading: Christopher Steiner, ‘Can the Canon Burst?’ in Camille et al,
‘Rethinking the Canon,’ Art Bulletin 78.2 (1996) pp. 213-17.
Task 2: How far can Eisenman’s criteria be defended / criticized?
Reading: Stephen Eisenman, ‘Three criteria for inclusion in, or exclusion
from a World History of Art,’ in World Art 1.2 (2011) pp. 281-98.
24th
March THE MEANINGS OF ‘STYLE’: FORMALISM AND THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ART
Task 1: What makes the concept of style so questionable?
Reading: Robert Bagley, ‘Style’ in Max Loehr and the Study of Chinese
Bronzes: Style and Classification in the History of Art (Ithaca, 2008) pp.
121-29.
Task 2: Consider Evelyn Welch’s essay ‘Art on the Edge: Hair and Hands in
Renaissance Italy.’ What are its core arguments and in what ways is it an
example of the social history of art?
Reading: Evelyn Welch, ‘Art on the Edge: Hair and Hands in Renaissance
Italy,’ Renaissance Studies 23.3 (2009) pp. 241-68.
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7th
April CONCEPTS OF ICONOLOGY: FROM VISUAL LEXICON TO SOCIAL MEMORY
Task 1: Outline the main ideas presented by Aby Warburg in the
Introduction to Mnemosyne.
Reading: Aby Warburg, ‘The Absorption of the Expressive Values of the
Past,’ in Art in Translation 1.2 (2009) pp. 273-83.
Task 2: What is wrong, according to Craig Harbison, with Panofsky’s theory
of iconology in Early Netherlandish art?
Reading: Craig Harbison, ‘Iconography and Iconology,’ in Bernard
Ridderbos et al, eds, Early Netherlandish Painting: Rediscovery, Reception
and Research (Amsterdam, 2021) pp. 378-406.
21st
April HORIZONTAL ART HISTORY AND THE CENTRE / PERIPHERY PROBLEM
Task 1: In what sense is Lagos an artistic ‘hub’? Why is it still on the
periphery of global art, as Castellote and Okwuosa maintain?
Reading: Jess Castellote and Tobenna Okwuosa, ‘Lagos Art World: The
Emergence of an Artistic Hub on the Global Art Periphery,’ African Studies
Review 63.1 (2020) pp. 170-96.
Task 2: What does ‘decentering’ modernism mean?
Reading: Partha Mitter, ‘Decentering Modernism: Art History and AvantGarde
Art from the Periphery,’ Art Bulletin 90.4 (2008) pp. 531-48.
5th
May GENDERING ART HISTORY
Task 1: Outline the arguments for the meaning of ‘queer’ art history in
relation to medieval art.
Reading: Karl Whittington, ‘Queer,’ Studies in Iconography 33 (2012) pp.
156-68.
Task 2: What is the visual pleasure in looking, according to Mulvey? How
relevant is her discussion of film to art history?
Reading: Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ in Leo
Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory
Readings (New York, 1999) pp. 833-44.
19th
May DECOLONIZING THE DISCIPLINE
Task 1: How might one describe the place of modern Asian art in
Western histories of modern art? What are the issues?
Reading: Dirk Michel-Schertges, ‘Contemporary Asian Art and Western
Societies: Cultural “Univeralism” or “Uniqueness” in Asian Modern Art,’
Asian Journal of German and European Studies 4 (2019) n.p.
Task 2: Analyse the use of the concepts of the ‘gaze,’ ‘otherness’ and
the ‘exotic’ in Czarnecka’s study of ethnographic exhibitions.
Reading: Dominika Czarnecka, ‘Black Female Bodies and the “White”
View,’ East Central Europe 47 (2020) pp. 285-312.