ABSTRACT
Making Art History is a collection of essays by contemporary scholars on the practice and theory of art history as it responds to institutions as diverse as art galleries and museums, publishing houses and universities, school boards and professional organizations, political parties and multinational corporations.
The text is split into four thematic sections, each of which begins with a short introduction from the editor, the sections include:
- Border Patrols, addresses the artistic canon and its relationship to the ongoing 'war on terror', globalization, and the rise of the Belgian nationalist party.
- The Subjects of Art History, questions whether 'art' and 'history' are really what the discipline seeks to understand.
- Instituting Art History, concerns art history and its relation to the university and raises questions about the mission, habits, ethics and limits of university today.
- Old Master, New Institutions, shows how art history and the museum respond to nationalism, corporate management models and the 'culture wars'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|68 pages
Border patrols
chapter 4|12 pages
What's in a name?
“Flanders,” language, and the historiography of late medieval art in Belgium since federalization
part II|62 pages
The subjects of art history
part III|61 pages
Instituting art history
part IV|61 pages
Old masters, new institutions
chapter 13|15 pages
Figuring the origins of the modern at the fin de siècle
The trope of the pathetic male
chapter 14|23 pages
Re-imagining meaning in the contemporary museum
From things that go beep in the case to the artist ex machina