1 Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of Art History Spring Semester 2025 Image, Object, Text: Theories and Methods in Art History and Visual Studies Code: DU1905 Credits: 8 SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS During the course you are required to give a short (10-15 minute) presentation in pairs to the class, based on the tasks assigned to you below. How you divide the work with your partner is a matter for the two of you to agree on. For each presentation, can you please identify 3 or 4 examples of works of art or architecture that are not discussed in the article, but that illustrate the ideas and arguments being presented. You will be given feedback on the presentation, but your performance will not count towards the final assessment of the course. It is meant to give you an opportunity for you to undertake preliminary work for the course and to gain a sense of how well you understand the themes and ideas being explored in the course. 7th March STYLE AND FORM Why, according to Robert Bagley’s essay ‘Style,’ is it so tricky to talk about the style of a work of art / architecture ? Text: Robert Bagley, ‘Style,’ in Max Loehr and the Study of Chinese Bronzes (Ithaca, 2008) pp. 121-29. 21st March THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ART Stephen Eisenman’s chapter ‘The Appeal of Modern Art: Toulouse Lautrec’ is taken from a study in the social history of art. What are its main arguments, and why should it be regarded as an example of the social art history? What do you understand by ‘social history of art’ on the basis of this chapter? Text: Stephen Eisenman, ‘The Appeal of Modern Art: Toulouse Lautrec,’ in Eisenmann, Nineteenth-century Art: A Critical History (London, 2020) pp. 424-32. 28th March THE IDEA OF HISTORICAL PERIODS IN ART What does it mean to talk of the ‘the usual study of architecture from the perspective of a single moment in time’ and what is wrong with it? Text: Lisa A. Reilly, ‘Change over Time: Neatline and the Study of Architectural History,’ Artl@s Bulletin 4.1 (2015) pp. 7-19. . 4th April CONCEPTS OF ICONOLOGY: FROM VISUAL LEXICON TO SOCIAL MEMORY Outline the main ideas of iconology presented by Aby Warburg in the Introduction to Mnemosyne. Why does he give so much emphasis on social memory and psychology to the understanding of iconology? Text: Aby Warburg, ‘The Absorption of the Expressive Values of the Past,’ in Art in Translation 1.2 (2009) pp. 273-83. 11th April CANON WARS: THE OBJECTS AND VALUES OF ART HISTORY What are the ‘sins of omission’ in the art historical canon? Text: Nanette Salomon, ‘The Art Historical Canon: Sins of Omission’ in Donald Preziosi, The Art of Art History (Oxford, 1998) pp.344-55. 25th April ASSOCIATIVE AND HORIZONTAL ART HISTORIES What do you understand by the idea of ‘associative art history,’ as described by Tomáš Pospiszyl (‘Eastern and Western Cubes’)? Why is it important for the study of central European art? Text: Tomáš Pospiszyl, ‘Eastern and Western Cubes: Minimalism in Dispute’, in Pospiszyl, An Associative Art History (Prague, 2017) pp. 90-109 2nd May THE GAZE, SEXUALITY AND THE NUDE Either What, according to Laura Mulvey, is the basis of ‘visual pleasure’? Text: ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism : Introductory Readings (New York, 1999) pp. 833-44 Or 2 Choose 4 artworks on display in the Moravian Gallery or another art gallery in Brno or Olomouc for detailed discussion where you think the theory of the ‘gaze’ (Olin, Mulvey) might be relevant to a critical interpretation. 9th May ACROSS CULTURES: WORLD ART HISTORY AND THE DEBATE OVER DECOLONIZATION Can buildings be racist? Text: Albert S. Fu, ‘Can Buildings be Racist? A Critical Sociology of Architecture and the Built Environment,’ in Sociological Inquiry 92.2 (2022) pp. 442-65. In what sense has African art history led to a ‘dismantling’ of traditional art historical values and ideas? Text: Rowland Abiodun, ‘Introduction: On the Centrality of Africa in African Art Studies’ in Abiodun, Yoruba Art and Language (Cambridge, 2014) pp. 1-23.