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    9 views10 pages

    Ar History Visual Culture Debbie Cherry

    Uploaded by

    Valeria
    ArHistoryVisualCultureDebbieCherry

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    ART : HISTORY : ART : HISTORY : Wa VISUAL: CULTURE Ere ea \Wet ey se aa © a i | 108 Covey an, Ord ORO a ‘he ht of Dah Chery ob et the tor fhe ta ater in hi Wr ‘on ren mer cordance mit the UX Cope Desig, sad tent At 988 ‘herent con may po ae nin ‘tree mse Gye Do al en wat he Fit pb 208 by Hace Pini th Lay ogres alge Dt ho api or -Acauope cort th ie sabe om the Ash Lear, ‘Macmillan nda I apgaae tna Fate an ou! ete Ute Kina 1p mean Pons Comal ‘Te uber pot se permanent gape mil hat operate sustainable fey end hich hate, atc om ppd an ea ey CONTENTS 1 Are history visual culture Deborah Chery 2 Oneiri horizons ‘mirror hal agen Wang Senses and sensibility in Byzantium 1 James 44 Gendeving the period eye: deschi da parto and Renalssance visual cutare ‘Adrian WA, Randotph 5 Visceral cltre: bushing and the legblty of whiteness in cighteenth-century British portraiture ‘Angela Rosenthal {6 Making sense out the visual: Aboriginal presentations and representations in nineteenthcentury Canada ath Pipe 7. Framing the colony: houses of Algeria photographed Zenep Gee {8 ‘Modest recording instruments: science, surrealism and visually Devi mas 9 Art beyond aesthetics: philosophical criticism, art history and ‘contemporary art Peter Onerne 10 Mistry as the main complaint: Wiliam Kentridge and the making of postapartheld South Aica Jesca Dut and Ruth Rsegaren ‘Notes on Contributors Aiscolving bodes: Buddhist cave shrine as Index CColour plate section falls between pages 90 and 91 a ar ART HISTORY : VISUAL : CULTURE DEBORAH CHERRY years oth ate the focus af dedicated journals, publishers sts, conferences and Stic, the study of visual cule, has made 3 more recent appearance. The relationship between the two has been particularly considered: are art history nd visual studies distinc, antagonistic or complementary enterprises? I visu Studies, as WIT Mitchell proposes, a dangerous supplement which, while ican {dd to ar history. also poses the profound threat of ts displacement? or simply century, art history has boon under revision: century or more Inter there is Substantial reapprasal ofits emergence is histories and formative teats Bu it Js the events ofthe pst chit years ~ stil in ving memory ~ that ser tha accelerated the pace of change Ina fed of ty inticated na globalized market, for its literature and teachers. as well sits abject. The discipline came under feminism, socialism and Marxism. Equally sigaifcant was the turn to semiotics, to pachoanalyis and to critical theory, particularly the writings of Miche |. Foseault By the mid940s these diverse and sometimes confictng strands were bundle together a5 the new at history’ although there was some scepticism ‘that this was litle more than rebranding. For Advan Riki, to become a as tinguished editor of Art History the new att history was “an ansous liberal fHrntagem to market a faded product in anew package? Certainly, the political aguregte of materials, methods, protocols, technologies, institutions, socal ‘ital, and systems of ciculation and inventory One outcome of att history’s expanded fel, with is wider range of materials and artists, diverse method: logis and depth charges to the canon, i that, for some, the history of art now Includes the seudy of sua culture: photography and increasingly im are now icons, or sete into comfortable coexistence. The debates about the nature fof ar history, its disciplinary and inedicipliary boundaries, its procedures, 12 Clima a Upper Bakony of he Mubarak Maa Priorities and sks have been reignited by the alterations about visual culture ‘omingin the id990s the Hashpoint of vs tdi way caught into the shits Im the humanities marked bythe emergence of postolonial and transcultura studies, and an increasing attention to the ats of Africa Asia and Latin Ameria Discussion of visual studies as been overburdened with three questions whats visual studies, where docs it come fom, and where it going? AS Micke a asttey remarks the temptation to make definition the starting pot is part ‘ofthe problem’ in defining ts diffe Bld? There i considerable discussion Shout whether visal stds or visual cultre might constitute a new discipline Wiring some ten yeas ago, Tom Mitchel in anguing for an academic pro- gramme, ad claim to vial cleure a 'a new hyrié discipline’, But contributing tothe At Ble’ series of provocative debates, he dented visual ulre2s'an interdscpline™ a site of convergence and conversation across disciplinary newt the potenti o bean "indpine” [zone of vrbulece on Aiscplinary horizons. One ofits leading proponents. Nicholas Mize, describes ‘sual culture asa "postdisciplinary academic endeavor’ a tactic’ and “atid Interpretative structure” defined bythe questions it asks and the issues it raises in understanding new visual media? And Mitchell in 2002 judged it ‘a de- iscplinary exercise’ which starts out in an area beneath disciplinary srutiey to ty the eacipines addressed to vital arts or medi’ abd intense visustity of everydny life in the late twentieth centry, na well ws "he analysis of these phenomena with thir extensive global reach? But sich assertions have ben rebutted, a5 much by the view that contemporary culture ismore textual than visual, and perceptions of information culture as invisible.” 4s by research illuminating the visual cultures and visuaity outside the West. notably in East, West and South Asa at ear as well as more ecent historical moments." Michell, who coined the persuasive term the pictorial turn” has ‘nce revised the notion to include "an innumerable variety of ccumstance ring thatthe ‘apposed hegemony ofthe vibe In our time isa chimera ‘hathas outlived its wefulness"= Another trajectory has tracked vial culture's femergence in cultural studies, ts contestation (inthe ‘Viual Culture Quer Honnaire” published in Other in 1996) and its acceptance with the publication In 2002 of Art itor, Asti, Vial Studs, edited by Michel Ann Holly and Keith Money An earlier route has been traced through the history of ar ‘rough Michael Basandals primer of 1972, Ptng ond Experience in Renan Tay, and Svetlana Alpers's The Art of Desig. of 1988, her study of uth {Art in the Seententh Century In which she declared: ‘What! propose to study then emo the hstory of Dutch at but the Dutch ial ule 1 ses term that | ome Pleasures, fascination with optical device of al kinds, and the mole of pe ‘eption developed by specific soil groups, reaching the conclision that as image proliferated ewrehere, they consitted an extensive visual, at opposed to 4 textual, culture "The writings of both scholars have teen deeply influential, although Fasting and Exereweinitaly encountered some suspicion in the Bld of are history. TE was not uni the mi990s that something identified at vin culture’ ‘ame othe fore in academic programming and publishing, and into some col Hsin with at history, Several books on visual culture were published at this point, written before the current expansion of the internet, widening acess tit and rapid changes to digital media. Chis Jenks saw visual culture a ite more than the expanded eld ofr and is histories, writing. "with the academy aterm used conventionally 16 sgn painting, sculpture design and architect it indicates Inte modern broadening ofthat previounly contained within the Aetnton of fine art” Takinga much wider approach, ohn A. Walker and Sarah (Chapin located visual cultare within a confluence of the expansion and con testation of art history. the reneval of the social history of "the emergence of ‘the ‘new art history” the development of ‘sual reseate’ in Brith at colleges the instiuonalizaton of design history, the rapid expansion of fim nd media studies, and the foundation of cultura tues at Birmingham.” In this account ‘sal culture may be understood in response te. even a 2 resolution of, conics hich ese rt history. noted on both sides ofthe Atlantic bythe early 19805 In this collection, Adrian Randolph views visual ultare asa welcome realignment allowinga now hierarchical approach othe selection of objects and an openness © the pst’ inflection by the present And David Lomas considers sual studies and at history as convent. ‘on the premise that established displaces can evo esde this inclusive acount Is «perception of visual culture a a necessary eparcre triggered by the fallures of art history to engage with contemporary resent in accounts of the past, or t addres seit. Vial cule has lunches a robust challenge fo establishd practices and priorities. Fo it Rogot. ‘sul culture questions art history's conventional procedures, is connolseur- Ship and enthusiasm fora good ee” offering instead ‘an understanding of em died knowledge. of disputed. meanings, of the formation of scholastic the role of vision in the formation of the stroctares of deie!> I for some ‘imu culture provides + muchneeded new direction, fr others there is some rapprochement A pioneering volume on visual culture. athe editors put i's istry of images’ presented esay which represented a tendency to move away fom the history of ar ata ecrd ofthe creation f aesthetic masterpieces, which understanding of their culteral significance forthe historia crcumstances fn which they were produced at well as their potential meaning within the Yet the flue isnot all and not only artibuted wart story. Linked tothe epthlessness of postmodern culture, visual studies can lack the historical fembedding ofthe object of study that has characterized much of at history's ‘cent enventon. And visual studies canbe curiously inattentive tothe compleity and specicity ofthe visual. Tom Crow's etique ha been sbstantv, Iva ttre extends vertically from fine at to handbills and horror video, slater Scope is narrow and overt preoccupied by, and dependent on, “modernism fetish of vsuality’ and the construction of alate modernist canon around opt cali. Visual culture, he malataies accepts without question the most cherished ‘sumption of high modernism” and "the view that aft sto be defined By it Cesena visual nature, by ite working exclusively Ehrough the optical fc: {es2? Tis preoccupation with the optical entails fire to recognize that ‘intng in particular achieved its high degre of elconsciousness in Western culture by virtue of antagonism towards its own visual.” Pursuing this theme Jn a sustained discussion of concepual art, Crow drew attention to a major ‘movement characterized ty awithdrawal of vsuality (to quote Charles Harison. fand an ar that was beyond "he category ofthe image’ that was learned nd elect inthe traditions ofthe European art academies.” to argue for an at story tha could addres at practice and reception antagonistic or averse tthe ‘irl He opposed the translation ofthe history of at into history of images nguing that to attend only to images oF to art ab images was to lose muck: “p surrender 2 history of aft wo a history of anaes will indeed sean = deakiling of interpretation, an inevitable misrecogntion and msrepresentation fof one realm of profound human endeavor Although Crow's thoughtful and provocative challenge has met withthe response tit visual cultures more than {he history of images and the charge that he was advocating connoiseurship and authentiction.™ his call for at history to address forms of art that contest, fefite and renegotiate visualtyremaine one of at history's most dificult asks His concern tha sua culture entals"oning out aiferenes and pling al the objects of the world into a muddle of Western devising.” ins 3 rexponse her in Eugene Wang’ conclusion that ‘the surging paradigm of visual culture has pro- vided a‘riechaeeded shot inthe srt for the sty of Buddhist atin China, Visual sties hat been characterized by Mieke Ble promoting Kind of visual esentinlim that either proclaims the visual “ference” ~ read “pry of images. or expresses a desie to stake out the tur of wsualty against other Imedia oF semiotic systems’ Visual essenilsm is addresed in these pases by Peter Osborne. writing ofthe crisis im art writing and judgement Viel essentlalism has also aflicted ar history, which has share the concept ofthe ‘isemboded cj Liz James reflects here on the ways in which art history or sual culture might wih to exceed the visal” Ruth Phllips, writing on 8 crosscultural encounter i 1860, welcomes visual studies for its interest in “iverse visual media and its ability to contont the pervasive colonial lesacy of racial constructs and ethne stereotypes inscribed by popular and commercial sens aswell the ie ants" But she fds the ocularcentrism of vs caltare nd at history unresponsive tthe oratory. dance, mi, ital and performance ‘of ndigenous cultures, whether premodern or reintroduced through reival oF feinvention In some sens, then, vital tudier may become compli withthe practices that reduced native gifts to visual signs of imperial power and (mistransated the bodily and sensory slfpresenttion of naive peoples into Westem forms of vision and visulity. Although the remaining Images testi to a huge fous of caltucl information, she demontrates how they may be reinterpreted at vital deposit of the active sefposioning and step ‘negotiation undertaken by native peoples ‘Te visual + culture couplet is comprised of two somewhat ieconclabe tems. Cultre ies into is use in anthropology asa way of li, the spectre rsd by ‘Orber in ts pronouncement that viaual eultue sno longer organized on the ‘model of history but oa the model of anthropology.” Culture is the major ‘oncer of cltral stds (already identi in visual culture's genealogy: isa framing concept in the analysis of subcultures and altemative cultures, com- temporaneows withthe transformations n art history nthe 1970 and exty 1980s ‘And culture was famously deployed In the weitings of Raymond Willams and Pere Bourdieu, both of whom pointed ou the formidable role played Byatt and its tnsteutions in definiions of culture>” Whereas Rousie'sconcusons about in France atthe midcentay, iis worth remembering that Willams’ deeply inuentil account belonged to and shaped the postwar democratic setiement in iain, nding lengthy exposition in Clee an Say 1780-190 rt published in 1958 and thre years ater sa Penguin paperback before its dilation into the ‘more often ited Keywords. At that moment ofa “marked shift of socal power? Wiliams unraveled the colliding definitions of elture’~ fom tending of nat trl growsh’ a in ageeutue) tos reference toa separate body of mora and elletul activites and meanings 24 whole way of lie” He wrote of cles ieractions with clas and democray. andthe disputes repeatedly taged ove this Tong dure between minority culture and mass clzation, and of sodas and Maris interpretations. Addressing the los of traditional popular culture’ and the problematic of workingelass culture” he conchadd with a utopian plea for ‘a eammon culture’ whose tending is undertaken by lL" the 19605 culture again became a particularly politicized domain, com tested ina range of competing feds of power. fom pois to the academy. ‘corporate entity tothe vial arts? It Became a key atena forthe inrensed ‘sbityand organization of artis of colour, within a decisive shift rom "ace elaine (he discursive framework ofthe 1950s to the 170 to the articulation ofa black cultural polities.” Culture i the ground for cultural diversity’ a wel ‘5 that vexed term ‘multiculturalism eis component inmaterial clare” 3 field that as fared, briefly perhap, in the ast wo decades, with ts interests in consumption acquisition and material ode" And culture hs come into public polly a east in Britain, with the Labour Government's creation of Department ‘of Culture, Media and Spor, which oversees museums, libraries, roadastng, heritage sites andthe ars, 5 well as spor, the lotery, oursm and the lise dusts Labour's fist culture secretary. Chris Smith celebrated culture's sci Inclusion, its power project dents and to cement communities ™ ‘ut twas undoubtedly the visual, vision and visuality that attracted most attention in a surge of publications that tok place against what was perceived 8 dramatic increase in images in the West genersted by new technologies, glo- alization and a fascination with similacra.” Inguries Into Joking snd the size, spectatorship, scopic regimes, visual representation and the relations of power accompanied interrogations of the status and denigration of vision in ‘Western metaphysis and explorations ofthe limits of vision ts relations to not seeing and to blindness. Feminist analysis provided powerful accounts of visual pleasure’ “women’s look (a spectator and image) and senuality in he feld of ‘sin’ to cite influential studies by Laura Mulvey. Mary Ann Doape and Jacque line Rose. From Laura Multey’s formative essay on Visual pleasure and narrative ‘inema’ fist published in Sen, a journal of fl suds). feminist interop ‘ns signlcanty lead and shape ae in which psyehounalyte theory eth Sophisticated theorizations of looking and the gaze ~ has retained, as Parveen ‘Adams explains, “sn overwhelming explanatory strength.” There wideranging Inguises have relocated art history ae one of several enterprise concerned with vision and vsvaity, Michael Ann Holly commented in 1995 that ‘te com ‘entation om the “g2ze" san interpretative principle cuts across a wide sampling ‘of recent theoretical perspectives In which “the investigation of who or et resumed tobe dag the ooking i now viewed as erically unsettling ie In this collection of essays, theories of vision and of viuaity are tested ina range ‘of situations. Oneric sons ofthe Buddha in medieval China, ensate vision in ‘Byzantium, contested vision in fiteenthentury aly challenge the claims fora special lnk between vistl culture and Western modernity tn Byzantium, a iz James points out Iconopiles and Iconoclasts lashed over the role of images in religious devotion. She demonstrates how senate vision and senwory experience allowed the Orthodox believer to ass Beyond the pial elm othe spirit In medieval China, too. vision extended beyond everyday seeing or vernacular ual. Fagene Wang explains the significance of optics, phantasmagoria and the rich tality of perceptual experience of spellbinding viewing and imaginary fights solicited by the Buddhist images’ In hillside cave shrines with extensive wall-and cling paintings. practitioners entered meditative absorption or tance Stats As the boundary between viewer and viewed dissolved, devotees Became mmerted in vast imaginary space fled with disembodied images, mio x flection, oneri shadows and phantasmagoric projections’ By contrat, Adrian Randolph is precisely concerned with everyday seeing. and the mapping of sex dertaken by communities of elite women. Randolph focuses on dest da port, painted birth trays which belonged to ‘ach culture of conception. preg ancy and childbirth in medieval and Renaissance Ialythe dec and the space of thelr reception offer a heteoglosc alternative tothe normative period eye. 2 eplinere and haptic viewing enjope by cori ary’ of female spectators A swathe of recent interpretations has argued thatthe project of Wester rodernity was achieved by the privileging of sight and the eameshing of visual. Xnowledge and power” Studies of vision and visualty hve had an impact on accounts of imperialism, travel and the art of Onentaliem’* Zeynep Gell aed together with fastdeeloping technologie for thei global rely, were intimately connected to the making of coon knowledge. Yet thoigh vray has Deen 3 sigitcant force inthe ceston of racilized seeotyping and in the exer of —;- ower vision i twosvay and encounters were viewed from both ride; both essays raw atention to the eiss

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