Critical Terms for Art History

by Richard Shiff and Robert S. Nelson

Book Overview

The nature of the visual has, over the past decade, moved to the center of debates in the humanities. No longer simply the study of timeless masterpieces, art history as a discipline is now addressing some of the most basic questions about cultural production, questions such as how images function and how expectations and social factors mediate what we see. The new scope of art history has required a major expansion and reassessment of methods and terminology.

Edited by Robert Nelson and Richard Shiff, Critical Terms for Art History is both an exposition and a demonstration of contested terms from the current art historical vocabulary. In individual essays, scholars examine the history and use of these terms by grounding their discussions in single works of art, reading each work through current debates and methods. This instructive combination of theory and practice allows readers to examine the terms as they are seeing them employed. In its wide representation of contemporary discourse, Critical Terms for Art History is a comprehensive effort to map historical and theoretical debates over the visual environment.

Like its companion, Critical Terms for Literary Study, this book will prove an invaluable resource both for those beginning to learn about the visual theory and for scholars and historians.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226571653
• ISBN13: 9780226571652
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

where art history and philosophy intersect,

you will find books such as this one. A Ph.D. is not required to understand it, but it will give you an intellectual workout, as it is not a beginner's handbook. You need to have read some art history (beyond the "what, where, when, who" level), and some art criticism, to see the rationale behind its chapter headings. It is also not a book about works of art as such, but about the special terms and concepts used in current interpretive writing on the "fine" arts (primarily arts of Western European derivation, but the contributors are sensitive in handling the cultural bias of their sources). ALL of the authors are distinguished authorities on the topics they discuss. I think it is a strength of this book that they do not share a homogeneous intellectual background, or ideological bias, and also that they are not all the same age, but made their greatest contributions at different points in the recent (roughly, between 1970 and 1990) "crisis" of art historical writing. The most useful feature of this book, to my mind, is that it provides carefully argued contextual analysis of critical terms which either 1) have a long history of use (and therefore need unpacking before we can grasp the "unconscious"--sometimes contradictory--values they impose on the works to which they're applied), or 2) have been recently introduced to enable an informed critique of traditional art history. The cumulative effect of the various essays is to demistify some of our more cherished assumptions about the value of art: its timeless messages, its inspired origins, its spiritual uplift, its higher expressiveness/beauty/perfections. In other words, if you hope for a "feel-good" treatment of art critical standards, this is not your book. And yet, if you can accept that making and using works of art are social activities, and like the other products and customs of human societies, are constantly in flux even as they depend for their existence on inherited techniques, formulas, and ideals, then this book will provide a wonderful "relief map" of the intellectual foundations of current art history/art criticism.

Learning the rules of the game

Most of these essays are written by extremely prominent art historians and critics, such as WJT Mitchell, Homi Bhaba, the late Michael Camille, Jas' Elsner, and Nina Kallmyer. Each writer explores a "charged" term currently used in art criticism, such as "representation," "social art history," "ugliness," and "beauty." In each essay, the writer explores the meaning of the term by applying it to a single work of art. Though the essays vary in difficulty, each is ultimately very rewarding. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of art criticism. An absolute must for journalists, art critics, and students.