Image, Object, Art

2016 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Thing Theory ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Image Object

Through “conversation” with a more than four thousand-year-old Chinese vessel, this essay engages with some of the fundamental principles of the discipline of art history espoused in recent decades. In particular, it situates Bildwissenschaft and thing theory and the material turn within ongoing debates on art and artifacts and delineates a more fluid approach to the study of image, object, art (Bild, Ding, Kunst).

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. 

Egypt in Roman Visual and Material Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlín Eilís Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Art History ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Intercultural Exchange ◽  
Material Turn

This review article addresses current controversies and opportunities in research on the roles, uses, and meanings of “Egypt” in ancient Roman visual and material culture. Accordingly, the article investigates problems of definition and interpretation; provides a critical review of current scholarly approaches; and analyzes the field’s intersections with current intellectual developments in the broader fields of archaeology and art history. It is argued that research on Roman Aegyptiaca can gain much from, and is poised to contribute substantially to, (1) 21st-century archaeology’s “material turn”; (2) the construction of new interpretive frameworks for cross-cultural interactions and “hybridization”; and (3) increased attention to the relationships among artifacts, contexts, and assemblages. Roman visual representations of Egypt provide a rich testing ground for research on intercultural exchange, the lived experience of empire, and the complex entanglement of people, things, and images.

scholarly journals “Who of us has never traced light over these walls”?: The archaeology of Stanisław Grochowiak’s poems

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Helena Hejman
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Art History ◽  
Concrete Element ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Ars Poetica ◽  
Archetypal Images

Through a simple wall, a transparent element of everyday life, Stanisław Grochowiak’s poems enable one to uncover the existential concrete element, matter endowed with an amazing hypnagogic potential, a chronicle of ‘objectness’. In the poet’s imagined world, the wall constitutes both an empirical item and a phenomenon, which transcends the ontology of matter, which determines its semantic fluidity: at one point it resembles an anthropological document (a place of cultural/biographical inscription) only to, a moment later, resemble the basis for surrealist visions or the material of an artifact. The wall seems to be the limit of the zone of mental comfort or, e.g., expose the in-body plane, which, like the walls of pre-historic caves, is covered with archetypal images from (the) childhood (of humanity). This study, based on contexts in art history, psychoanalysis, and a material turn, is an attempt at identifying the references which focus “on the wall” in the following works: “Płonąca żyrafa”, “Malarstwo”, “Zejście”, and “Ars Poetica”.

scholarly journals The materiality or ‘thingness’ of words and their effects: Some examples from the Book of Proverbs

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Viviers
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Art History ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Reference List ◽  
Textual Studies ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Ultimate Source ◽  
Material Turn

Words are more than vehicles for semantic meaning; they can also be regarded as ‘things’ with an ‘agency’ of their own. This happens when they are seen (iconic to legitimise) or heard (performative to inspire). According to S. Brent Plate, a key researcher on materiality (see reference list) ‘words are bodies, full of power’. Words, along with many ‘things’ (fetish, ritual, book, nature, place, etc.) mediate between the material known and the immaterial unknown; they make the invisible visible or experienceable. Birgit Meyer , the pioneer of the so-called material turn in the study of religion, says, words ‘effect the transcendental’ for the initiated. Not inherently potent but through ascribed or endowed meanings they in turn affect their creators. The so-called material turn in the study of religion has rediscovered that matter or ‘things’ really ‘matters.’ Words as powerful ‘things’ or agents are also attested to in Proverbs. When wisdom words are externalised (e.g. through ornaments, Pr 1:8–9), they legitimise their users; when they are internalised (in the heart or mind, Pr 2), they persuade almost like ‘powerful personae’ to follow the wise lifestyle; and when they are personified (Pr 8), they become the ‘mediatrix’ to the thought-world of wisdom, and its ultimate source, Yahweh.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The material turn in the study of religion (anthropology) emphasises the appreciation of materiality or ‘things’. It questions an exclusive mentalistic or inward approach in cognate disciplines, such as Religious Science, Theology and Old Testament and New Testament textual studies. It also stimulates a dialogue with other humaniora such as philosophy, psychology, literary studies, media studies and art history.

Matter Nature “Matters” Ultimately: A Material Ecological Reflection on Psalm 65

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Viviers
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Material World ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Material Things ◽  
Material Religion ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Fertile Land

Modern insights in philosophy, anthropology, psychology, communication studies, religion studies and art history (to name but a few), exemplify the so-called material turn in the study of religion, of how matter “matters,” even ultimately. Contributions in the recently founded journal, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, highlight these insights. Humans animate material “things” (e.g., land, nature, temples, shrines) with meaning, and they in turn become “agents” to mediate the meaningful world they stand for. Humans and matter become co-constitutive in this dynamic. Our senses and sensibilities play a crucial role in this “world making” endeavour, when interacting with the material world around us. Ecological hermeneutics concurs, regarding Earth as a “subject” in her own right. This study found that an ancient poem, Psalm 65, resonates with these modern insights. The psalm expresses a skilful interconnectedness in its composition, but moreover, it interconnects temple(-goers; vv. 2–5), the orderly cosmos (vv. 6–9) and the fertile land (vv. 10–14) in unified and thankful song towards their creator and sustainer. The sensual experience of the “goodness” in the temple in Zion, the awe-inspiring cosmos, and the “goodness” of the fertile land, realises this “world of bliss.”

Parallax Error: The Aesthetics of Image Censorshipe

2017 ◽  
pp. 74-81
Author(s):  
Ronnie Close
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
Original Photograph ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Image Collection ◽  
Visual Cultures ◽  
Image Object

Parallax Error is a found photographic image collection scavenged from well-known art history publications in bookstores in Cairo between 2012 and 2014. What makes the series distinct are the forms and styles of censorship used on the original images ahead of sale and public distribution. The altered images involve some of the leading figures in the canon of Western photographic history and these respected photo works enter into a process of state censorship. This entails hand-painting each photograph, in each book edition, in order to obscure the full erotic effect of the object of desire, i.e. parts of the human body. The position of photography within Egypt and much of the Arab world is a contested one shaped by the visual formations of Orientalism created by the impact of European colonial empires in the region. This archival project examines the intersection of visual cultures embedded behind the series of photographic images that have been transformed through acts of censorship in Egypt. This frames how these doctored photographic images impose particular meanings on the original photographs and the potential merits, if any, of iconoclastic intervention. Parallax Error examines the political and aesthetic status of the image object in the transformation from the original photograph to censored image. The ink and paint marks on the surface of the photograph create a tension between the censorship act and its impact on the original. These hybrid images provide a political basis to rethink visual culture encounters in our interconnected and increasingly globalised contemporary image world. Keywords: aesthetics, censorship, iconoclasm, images, representation

scholarly journals Materiality and Classics: (Re) Turning to the Material

2019 ◽  
Vol 139 ◽  
pp. 222-232
Author(s):  
Lilah Grace Canevaro
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Material World ◽  
New Directions ◽  
New Materialisms ◽  
The World ◽  
Material Turn

AbstractIn this article I review 11 books published since 2010 that bring the ‘material turn’ to classics. Some start from emic ancient perspectives on matter and materiality; others take their cue from current theoretical models such as those of the new materialisms. All offer new insights into our relationship with the material world and consider the material object as active within different paradigms. In reviewing these important volumes together, I question entrenched boundaries: from those between (sub-)disciplines to those between human and non-human agents. I explore the material turn not as an isolated phenomenon, but, first, as a cyclical ‘re’-turn and, second, as an integrated set of ideas incorporating (to name but a few strands) aesthetics, cognitive humanities, embodiment, affect and the senses. The books reviewed range from literary studies to archaeology to art history to material culture to heritage. Taken together, they set new directions for classics, and indeed for our thinking about our place in the world.

scholarly journals American Art Matters: Rethinking Materiality in American Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Erika Doss
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Technological Process ◽  
Art History ◽  
American Studies ◽  
American Art ◽  
Keynote Lecture ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
American Art History

Abstract The “material” turn has steadily gained currency in cultural studies and the humanities, with scholars increasingly attentive to theorising things and examining their presence, power, and meaning in any number of fields and disciplines. This essay stems from the keynote lecture given at the conference MatteReality: Historical Trajectories and Conceptual Futures for Material Culture Studies, held on March 23, 2017, at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg. Focused in particular on the meaning of materiality in American art history and American Studies today, it opens with an examination of the factors of monetisation and mobility and segues to a consideration of more efficacious ways to assess, theorise, and critique the material turn. Two areas that are particularly relevant in terms of rethinking, and mediating, materiality in American art and American Studies are those of technological process and affect: how things are made and how things make us feel.

The Trail, the Archive, the Museum, and the Book: Confronting Materiality in Literary Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-178
Author(s):  
Jacob Haubenreich
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Textual Production ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Abstract This article examines the persistence of the notion of the immaterial text in literary studies, now decades into the so-called material turn. Digitization of manuscripts increasingly confronts us with the facts of textual materiality and material authorship, yet many scholars remain ill-equipped to engage these traces in order to expand the possibilities of textual interpretation. The journeys of Peter Handke’s notebooks serve as a case study on how to interrogate various definitions of text and methodological approaches that reinforce an understanding of texts as immaterial. This article thus elucidates the conceptual and methodological impediments to more comprehensively integrating materiality into interpretation; an uneasiness, for example, about approaching authorship—the process and agency of textual production—lingers despite resurrections since the Author’s “death” and more recent transdisciplinary retheorizations of agency. The article finally looks to reflections on materiality in another field, art history, to clarify the reasons that integrating materiality into interpretative criticism remains so difficult, so that the field might begin to move beyond these obstacles.

Contamination | Purification

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline A. Jones ◽  
Joseph Leo Koerner
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Base Material ◽  
Art World ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Historical Production

Semantically, contamination is a process of defilement, while purity is a condition. This chapter takes up anthropology’s interest in process to inquire about purification itself as an historical production. It comments on the recent ‘material turn’ in art history and the humanities more generally. Linked to drives toward purity, grounded ‘material’ was asserted by the Fascists in contradistinction to ethereal abstraction, craft claimed over concept, and rooted contact with soil privileged over nomadic cosmopolitans. Likewise, linked to contamination, ‘base material’ was asserted against the modernist art world to contest fetishes of purity. While contemporary invocations of material have been a good way of disputing teleology, this chapter demonstrates they often are agnostic regarding narratives they might be made to serve.

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