Contextual Approaches I: Marxism, Orientalism, Colonialism, and Racial Iconography

The two most recent art historical methodologies that consider the economic and social context of art are those that have been influenced by Marxism and feminism. To a certain extent, these methods can be seen as reactions against formalism and as expanding iconography to include aspects of the cultural context. Because the Marxist method predated, and influenced, the feminist method in its present form, we begin with Marxism.