ABSTRACT
Artworks can represent, narrate, and perform history; relate it to the present; and situate it historically. Countless exhibitions and publications dedicated to the relationship between art and history in recent years portray an unsettled bond marked by repeated diagnoses of crisis. The discussion opens with an overview of current conceptions of the historicity of contemporary art that is necessary in order to historicize the historiographic alethos itself in contemporary art. Although scholarly and artistic approaches differ from one another regarding their methods, viewpoints, and interests, even as competing procedures they can be productively related to each other. The attractiveness of artistic historiography derives from its double advantage of providing a veritable fund of materials, narratives, and imaginations while at the same time promising socio-political relevance. History offers much that is acutely relevant for art, increasingly so as it operates under mounting social, political, and ethical pressures.
