James Elkins | School of the Art Institute of Chicago (original) (raw)
Videos by James Elkins
Introduction to theories of representation, depiction, denotation, and mimesis. See tinyurl.com/l... more Introduction to theories of representation, depiction, denotation, and mimesis. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
78 views
Introduction to the series of 70+ videos on the history, theory, and teaching of visual art. See ... more Introduction to the series of 70+ videos on the history, theory, and teaching of visual art. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
75 views
The concepts of vision, seeing, visuality, and visibility. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
82 views
Inroduction to theories of the relation between language and visual objects. See tinyurl.com/lect... more Inroduction to theories of the relation between language and visual objects. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
274 views
Introduction to the history of formal analysis and formalism in visual art. See tinyurl.com/lectu... more Introduction to the history of formal analysis and formalism in visual art. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
73 views
A review of principal theories of the gaze from the 1970s to the present. See tinyurl.com/lecture... more A review of principal theories of the gaze from the 1970s to the present. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
74 views
Drafts by James Elkins
“Gatinhos nas Filipinas”, 2024
This is a chapter from an unpublished novel, called "Stories, Like Illnesses." It's a chapter abo... more This is a chapter from an unpublished novel, called "Stories, Like Illnesses." It's a chapter about two students who present a nauseating PowerPoint about a man who experimented with kittens to try to understand the spread of dysentery. The text includes the images they show. Text boxes describe various drilling apparatuses: they are the thoughts of the narrator, who is the instructor: the students are giving him a migraine, and he's comparing it, in his mind, to rock drills.
More about the novel project on my website, www.jameselkins.com.
The paper originally appeared as: “Gatinhos nas Filipinas” [“Kittens in the Philippines”], from Book 1, Stories, Like Illnesses, translated into Portuguese by Luara Antunes Stollmeier, in Investígios: Revista Latino-Americana de Arqueologia Histórica 18. no. 2 (2024): “Arqueologia das imagens gráficas,” 197-234. The permalink is: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/vestigios/article/view/53599
Thanks to Luara Antunes Stollmeier!
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
This is an uncorrected reader's proof copy of the novel, which will be published by Unnamed Press... more This is an uncorrected reader's proof copy of the novel, which will be published by Unnamed Press in LA. I'm posting excepts here on Academia for comments. The layout, font, and distribution of images is still not set. All comments are welcome!
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
These are uncorrected reader's copy proofs of an experimental novel I have coming out next winter... more These are uncorrected reader's copy proofs of an experimental novel I have coming out next winter. It contains photos, charts, music, and diagrams. This excerpt is a chapter involving diagrams: first a real one (seen by the characters in the novel) and later an imaginary one (visualized by a character). I don't know any precedents for this, and I'd be interested to hear what everyone thinks. There are other excerpts from the book posted under "Drafts."
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
These are uncorrected reader's proofs for an experimental novel coming out in winter 2023 from Un... more These are uncorrected reader's proofs for an experimental novel coming out in winter 2023 from Unnamed Press in LA. The novel has some new moves in literary fiction. These pages are from a longer section of the book that has sheet music. The music is all for piano, and most of it could be played, but it's designed just to be seen on the page. The composers' names are real but all these pieces are modified or invented. All comments and suggestions are welcome!
This is a study of what counts as "fiction" in the work of Gerald Murnane. I think Murnane has on... more This is a study of what counts as "fiction" in the work of Gerald Murnane. I think Murnane has one of the strangest senses of "fiction," the "real world," and "imagination" of any writer. His explanations of those terms have involved his file of imaginary horse races. If he wasn't so often mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel, this might not matter: but I think it's a category error to think of his work as postmodern fiction or metafiction.
A version is online (see the opening line of the essay) and all comments are welcome there.
World's longest art critique! In 2020, a group based at the School of the Art Institute in Chicag... more World's longest art critique!
In 2020, a group based at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago spent a total of 16 hours on a single painting, this one, by Deanna Miera.
The 16-hour format was a special project: the idea was to talk until no one could think of any additional plausible meaning. When this works it's an amazing experience: you see how the meanings of a work of art aren't infinite, and how we all think along well-worn paths even when we imagine we're all unique.
The document I'm linking here shows the results, and also includes guidelines to do your own totally masochistic, annoying, boring, and possibly totally revelatory long-form critique.
This is a description of a set of over 70 videos on art theory and art history.
Books by James Elkins
This is an experimental novel, told in dreams and photos, with 150 images, diagrams, equations, a... more This is an experimental novel, told in dreams and photos, with 150 images, diagrams, equations, and sheet music (playable on piano). The unhappy story of a person pursued by dreams of burning. This is the result of 15 years of work & teaching the history of fiction with images, from Rodenbach to Sebald, Cole, and Rankine. It's intended to break new ground in the use of images and narrative. The first page here is the epigraph. The second page is near the end. The penultimate paragraph of that page is a reference to a well-known work of 19th c. fiction. First person to guess it gets a free copy! Preorders are open now via Unnamed Press, tinyurl.com/longstrangebook. More at jameselkins.com/ writing-schedule.
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
After fifteen years of work the novel will appear in November! This is the cover, table of conten... more After fifteen years of work the novel will appear in November! This is the cover, table of contents, and epigraph. The book has 200 photos, diagrams, charts, maps, and sheet music.
I will be posting excerpts in Academia and FB. Preorders are accepted at Unnamed Press, tinyurl.com/longstrangebook
Uploading an entire book on ways art history, theory, and criticism can be written more experimen... more Uploading an entire book on ways art history, theory, and criticism can be written more experimentally, in response to contemporary experimental writing in other fields.
This exists as a bound book, but it's rare, and the entire lecture series at the University of Edinburgh was canceled sometime afterward. So I'm posting it here for free.
Earlier drafts of these chapters, along with about a dozen more related chapters, are online at 305737.blogspot.com.
Please send me all comments by email, jelkins@saic.edu.
The End of Diversity North Atlantic Art History and Its Alternatives
This is from a book on forms of art historical writing worldwide. This section is on the fact tha... more This is from a book on forms of art historical writing worldwide. This section is on the fact that English has become the common language for art historical conferences and even publications. This raises questions not only of continuing Eurocentrism (or America-centrism), but also of limitations on careers caused by relative lack of facility in reading, writing, and speaking.
The book is available on Amazon.
The End of Diversity North Atlantic Art History and Its Alternatives, 2020
This is an excerpt from a book on art historical writing in different parts of the world. In this... more This is an excerpt from a book on art historical writing in different parts of the world. In this chapter I provide brief definitions of some of the most common concepts in conversations on world or global art history.
The book is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3110681102
Introduction to theories of representation, depiction, denotation, and mimesis. See tinyurl.com/l... more Introduction to theories of representation, depiction, denotation, and mimesis. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
78 views
Introduction to the series of 70+ videos on the history, theory, and teaching of visual art. See ... more Introduction to the series of 70+ videos on the history, theory, and teaching of visual art. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
75 views
The concepts of vision, seeing, visuality, and visibility. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
82 views
Inroduction to theories of the relation between language and visual objects. See tinyurl.com/lect... more Inroduction to theories of the relation between language and visual objects. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
274 views
Introduction to the history of formal analysis and formalism in visual art. See tinyurl.com/lectu... more Introduction to the history of formal analysis and formalism in visual art. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
73 views
A review of principal theories of the gaze from the 1970s to the present. See tinyurl.com/lecture... more A review of principal theories of the gaze from the 1970s to the present. See tinyurl.com/lecturesexplanation.
74 views
“Gatinhos nas Filipinas”, 2024
This is a chapter from an unpublished novel, called "Stories, Like Illnesses." It's a chapter abo... more This is a chapter from an unpublished novel, called "Stories, Like Illnesses." It's a chapter about two students who present a nauseating PowerPoint about a man who experimented with kittens to try to understand the spread of dysentery. The text includes the images they show. Text boxes describe various drilling apparatuses: they are the thoughts of the narrator, who is the instructor: the students are giving him a migraine, and he's comparing it, in his mind, to rock drills.
More about the novel project on my website, www.jameselkins.com.
The paper originally appeared as: “Gatinhos nas Filipinas” [“Kittens in the Philippines”], from Book 1, Stories, Like Illnesses, translated into Portuguese by Luara Antunes Stollmeier, in Investígios: Revista Latino-Americana de Arqueologia Histórica 18. no. 2 (2024): “Arqueologia das imagens gráficas,” 197-234. The permalink is: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/vestigios/article/view/53599
Thanks to Luara Antunes Stollmeier!
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
This is an uncorrected reader's proof copy of the novel, which will be published by Unnamed Press... more This is an uncorrected reader's proof copy of the novel, which will be published by Unnamed Press in LA. I'm posting excepts here on Academia for comments. The layout, font, and distribution of images is still not set. All comments are welcome!
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
These are uncorrected reader's copy proofs of an experimental novel I have coming out next winter... more These are uncorrected reader's copy proofs of an experimental novel I have coming out next winter. It contains photos, charts, music, and diagrams. This excerpt is a chapter involving diagrams: first a real one (seen by the characters in the novel) and later an imaginary one (visualized by a character). I don't know any precedents for this, and I'd be interested to hear what everyone thinks. There are other excerpts from the book posted under "Drafts."
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
These are uncorrected reader's proofs for an experimental novel coming out in winter 2023 from Un... more These are uncorrected reader's proofs for an experimental novel coming out in winter 2023 from Unnamed Press in LA. The novel has some new moves in literary fiction. These pages are from a longer section of the book that has sheet music. The music is all for piano, and most of it could be played, but it's designed just to be seen on the page. The composers' names are real but all these pieces are modified or invented. All comments and suggestions are welcome!
This is a study of what counts as "fiction" in the work of Gerald Murnane. I think Murnane has on... more This is a study of what counts as "fiction" in the work of Gerald Murnane. I think Murnane has one of the strangest senses of "fiction," the "real world," and "imagination" of any writer. His explanations of those terms have involved his file of imaginary horse races. If he wasn't so often mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel, this might not matter: but I think it's a category error to think of his work as postmodern fiction or metafiction.
A version is online (see the opening line of the essay) and all comments are welcome there.
World's longest art critique! In 2020, a group based at the School of the Art Institute in Chicag... more World's longest art critique!
In 2020, a group based at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago spent a total of 16 hours on a single painting, this one, by Deanna Miera.
The 16-hour format was a special project: the idea was to talk until no one could think of any additional plausible meaning. When this works it's an amazing experience: you see how the meanings of a work of art aren't infinite, and how we all think along well-worn paths even when we imagine we're all unique.
The document I'm linking here shows the results, and also includes guidelines to do your own totally masochistic, annoying, boring, and possibly totally revelatory long-form critique.
This is a description of a set of over 70 videos on art theory and art history.
This is an experimental novel, told in dreams and photos, with 150 images, diagrams, equations, a... more This is an experimental novel, told in dreams and photos, with 150 images, diagrams, equations, and sheet music (playable on piano). The unhappy story of a person pursued by dreams of burning. This is the result of 15 years of work & teaching the history of fiction with images, from Rodenbach to Sebald, Cole, and Rankine. It's intended to break new ground in the use of images and narrative. The first page here is the epigraph. The second page is near the end. The penultimate paragraph of that page is a reference to a well-known work of 19th c. fiction. First person to guess it gets a free copy! Preorders are open now via Unnamed Press, tinyurl.com/longstrangebook. More at jameselkins.com/ writing-schedule.
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
After fifteen years of work the novel will appear in November! This is the cover, table of conten... more After fifteen years of work the novel will appear in November! This is the cover, table of contents, and epigraph. The book has 200 photos, diagrams, charts, maps, and sheet music.
I will be posting excerpts in Academia and FB. Preorders are accepted at Unnamed Press, tinyurl.com/longstrangebook
Uploading an entire book on ways art history, theory, and criticism can be written more experimen... more Uploading an entire book on ways art history, theory, and criticism can be written more experimentally, in response to contemporary experimental writing in other fields.
This exists as a bound book, but it's rare, and the entire lecture series at the University of Edinburgh was canceled sometime afterward. So I'm posting it here for free.
Earlier drafts of these chapters, along with about a dozen more related chapters, are online at 305737.blogspot.com.
Please send me all comments by email, jelkins@saic.edu.
The End of Diversity North Atlantic Art History and Its Alternatives
This is from a book on forms of art historical writing worldwide. This section is on the fact tha... more This is from a book on forms of art historical writing worldwide. This section is on the fact that English has become the common language for art historical conferences and even publications. This raises questions not only of continuing Eurocentrism (or America-centrism), but also of limitations on careers caused by relative lack of facility in reading, writing, and speaking.
The book is available on Amazon.
The End of Diversity North Atlantic Art History and Its Alternatives, 2020
This is an excerpt from a book on art historical writing in different parts of the world. In this... more This is an excerpt from a book on art historical writing in different parts of the world. In this chapter I provide brief definitions of some of the most common concepts in conversations on world or global art history.
The book is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3110681102
The End of Diversity North Atlantic Art History and Its Alternatives, 2020
This is an excerpt from a book on art historical writing in different parts of the world. In this... more This is an excerpt from a book on art historical writing in different parts of the world. In this section I argue that art theory is remarkably uniform: no matter where the writing is done, if it draws on theory, its sources are likely to be French postwar texts. There are just a few exceptions that prove this rule (Walter Benjamin, for example). This seems to me to be an important and overlooked component of the dimishing diversity of art writing worldwide.
The book is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3110681102
Visual Worlds: Looking, Images, Visual Disciplines, 2020
My co-author Erna Fiorentini and I have been working six years on this textbook for Oxford Univer... more My co-author Erna Fiorentini and I have been working six years on this textbook for Oxford University Press. This is the table of contents, just sent to us Nov. 20, 2019. The book will be published in 2020. Thanks everyone who commented on drafts of chapters we've posted here, on Facebook, Twitter, and on my website over the last six years!
Visual Worlds: Looking, Images, Visual Disciplines, 2020
This is a chapter from the book Visual Worlds (Oxford, 2020), a textbook on forms of visual pract... more This is a chapter from the book Visual Worlds (Oxford, 2020), a textbook on forms of visual practice in art, science, medicine, the miltary, law, and other fields. The book is available on Amazon.
In it we survey several principal forms of the theory of the gaze, including psychoanalytic (and feminist), and positional (perspectival), in an attempt to decide if the "theory of the gaze" is a coherent subject, or actually several theories traditionally named as one.
Visual Worlds: Looking, Images, Visual Disciplines, 2020
This is a chapter from a textbook called Visual Worlds, co-authored with Erna Fiorentini. The boo... more This is a chapter from a textbook called Visual Worlds, co-authored with Erna Fiorentini. The book covers theories and practices of seeing and vision in many fields, including art, business, science, medicine, law, the military.
The entire book is on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199390916
Visual Worlds: Looking, Images, Visual Disciplines, 2020
This is a chapter of a textbook co-written with Erna Fiorentini, called Visual Worlds. It's about... more This is a chapter of a textbook co-written with Erna Fiorentini, called Visual Worlds. It's about the history and theory of how people have worshipped and destroyed images. We focus in particular on five concepts: iconoclasm, idolatry, iconophilia, iconophobia, and iconoclash.
The book is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199390916
Visual Worlds: Looking, Images, Visual Discoplines, 2020
This is an essay on the military uses of images: videos in missiles, drones, infrared vision, las... more This is an essay on the military uses of images: videos in missiles, drones, infrared vision, laser targeting, high-speed photography of projectiles, multiscreen battlefield planning -- and the relation between all those and contemporary art that uses, or comments on, military imagery.
It's a chapter from the book "Visual Worlds," co-authored with Erna Fiorentini. The book is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Worlds-Looking-Images-Disciplines/dp/0199390916
Visual Worlds: Looking, Images, Visual Disciplines, 2020
This is a chapter from a textbook called Visual Worlds, co-written with Erna Fiorentini. The book... more This is a chapter from a textbook called Visual Worlds, co-written with Erna Fiorentini. The book covers a very wide range of practices of seeing, including fine art, art history, medicine, law, literature, and several sciences, and it includes discussions of art theory, politics, and the science of vision.
The entire book is available on Amazon.
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art.
This is the 2021 revision. Every couple of years I rewrite and update this book. The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print. This revision (the third "edition") includes examples from contemporary art, and assignments for classroom use.
All comments & questions are welcome!
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art.
This is the 2021 revision. Every couple of years I rewrite and update this book. The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print. This revision (the third "edition") includes examples from contemporary art, and assignments for classroom use.
All comments & questions are welcome!
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art.
This is the 2021 revision. Every couple of years I rewrite and update this book. The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print. This revision (the third "edition") includes examples from contemporary art, and assignments for classroom use.
All comments & questions are welcome!
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art.
This is the 2021 revision. Every couple of years I rewrite and update this book. The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print. This revision (the third "edition") includes examples from contemporary art, and assignments for classroom use.
All comments & questions are welcome!
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art. This chapter covers the history of racial research in the 19th and 20th centuries and the artistic possibilities of pornography.
This is the 2021 revision. Every couple of years I rewrite and update this book. The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print. This revision (the third "edition") includes examples from contemporary art, and assignments for classroom use.
All comments & questions are welcome!
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art. This is the 2021 revision. Every couple of years I rewrite and update this book. The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print. This revision (the third "edition") includes examples from contemporary art, and assignments for classroom use. All comments & questions are welcome!
This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, ra... more This book is about representations of the body in all fields (fine art, medicine, ethnography, racial studies, biology). It is intended for artists, art students, and people interested in theories of art.
This is the 2013 revision. (The last two chapters were not updated in 2021.) The original was published by Stanford University Press in 1999 and is now out of print.
All comments & questions are welcome!
Athenaeum Review, 2024
This is a manifesto, which I wrote to help me articulate my dissatisfactions about contemporary f... more This is a manifesto, which I wrote to help me articulate my dissatisfactions about contemporary fiction, and to guide me in my own fiction project. The four proposals are sour and stringent because I'm skeptical of the idea that one of the main purposes of novels is to help us understand the world (its places, its people). I'm interested in how complex novels can become, how challenging, how historically responsive.
My notion is to make it harder to write novels.
Weak in Comparison to Dreams, 2023
A brochure for the novel, "Weak in Comparison to Dreams" (LA, Unnamed Press). Finally complete af... more A brochure for the novel, "Weak in Comparison to Dreams" (LA, Unnamed Press). Finally complete after 18 years of work! All comments welcome, as always.
Writing with Images, Outside Academia, 2023
This is an essay describing the reasons I have stopped actively researching art history, and focu... more This is an essay describing the reasons I have stopped actively researching art history, and focused instead on experimental writing and fiction. It has excerpts from my novel "Weak in Comparison to Dreams" (Unnamed Press) in order to show how images can have very different relations to their surrounding text, and how academic writing might be expanded to accommodate other voices.
This is a never-ending essay or book project, revised many times. It concerns the relation betwee... more This is a never-ending essay or book project, revised many times. It concerns the relation between studio art (and studio art departments) and the history of art. It is a curious and significant fact that most art historians have never tried to make art: curious because a large number of people who teach literature and literary criticism have written fiction or poetry, and a large number of people who teach music theory or music history play an instrument; and significant because that means the experience of making is seldom part of what art historians consider historically significant.
Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science, 2011
The essay argues that the sublime, and especially the postmodern sublime, is an intricate and unr... more The essay argues that the sublime, and especially the postmodern sublime, is an intricate and unresolved concept, and that it is not often coherent or necessary to import it into discourse on contemporary art.
This was also published as “Gegen das Erhabene," in Das Erhabene in Wissenschaft und Kunst: Über Vernunft und Einbildungskraft, edited by Roald Hoffmann and Iain Boyd Whyte (Berlin: Surhkamp: 2010): 97–113.
This is an exercise for first-year art students. Each student gets their own timeline (on a digit... more This is an exercise for first-year art students. Each student gets their own timeline (on a digital platform). It's pre-populated with the periods, artsts, and styles the class will cover. Then the srtudents each add their own artwork, and artists they like (Instagram artists, anime, manga, etc.). The exercise is to link up their art, and their interests, to the art history they will learn.
This is a chapter in the book "Art Critiques: A Guide." The entire book (third edition) is on Ama... more This is a chapter in the book "Art Critiques: A Guide." The entire book (third edition) is on Amazon.
Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2023
This is an essay about an experiment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to combine stu... more This is an essay about an experiment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to combine studio art and art history. It's the result of a wonderful class I taught with two studio instructors, Troy Briggs and Maggie Wong. The three of us took a year to design a completely new first-year class that integrated the usual art hisrory first-year experience into elements of the required first-year studio practice. The Journal of Visual Art Practice posted this online for a year, collecting responses. They have been published separately and can be found on the journal's website at
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14702029.2024.2360787
Refract, 2018
This paper revisits the edited volume "Theorizing Visual Studies." It ends with suggest... more This paper revisits the edited volume "Theorizing Visual Studies." It ends with suggestions for scholars who would like to push forward visual studies' promise to be radical in relation to art history and related fields. The link for it is above, or here: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4259n982. It was originally written for "Refract" (published by U.C. Santa Cruz), vol. 1, no. 1.
Transcultural Studies, 2010
INTRODUCTION I 1 Histories 5 2 Conrersations 41 3 Theories 91 Contents 4 Critiques 1n 5 Suggestio... more INTRODUCTION I 1 Histories 5 2 Conrersations 41 3 Theories 91 Contents 4 Critiques 1n 5 Suggestions 167 Conclusions 189 NOTES 193 INDEX 209 ... This little book is about the way studio art is taught. It's a manual or survival guide. intended for people who are directly ...
This essay is for introductory classes. It includes discussions of the time of viewing and of nar... more This essay is for introductory classes. It includes discussions of the time of viewing and of narrative forms in art.
This essay is intended for introductory courses, to take the place of art appreciation surveys.
New Art Examiner, 2018
This is a two-part essay on the current condition and prospects of art criticism around the world.
This is a condensed excerpt from the book "Why Art Cannot be Taught" (on Amazon). I argue that no... more This is a condensed excerpt from the book "Why Art Cannot be Taught" (on Amazon). I argue that no one knows how to teach art, yet everyone behaves as if art schools and departments are doing something other than teaching techniques, theories, and art discourse.
This is an excerpt from a 30-page essay on the history of the department where I work, from 1980,... more This is an excerpt from a 30-page essay on the history of the department where I work, from 1980, when it was founded, to 2010, when the full version of this essay was written. Some of what follows is specific to our department, but I'm posting it on academia because it makes a larger point: I'm interested in the way that art history is becoming normalized, not only in North America, but worldwide. I have a book on that subject coming out, called The Impending Single History of Art. One aspect of the increasing uniformity of the discipline is the way art history is taught. Because I've spent my career teaching in a large art school, I have been able to observe the increasing dominance of a set of ideals for the discipline that comes largely from a half-dozen principal research universities in North America and the U.K.. When I started teaching, my colleagues' interests and methods were well suited to teaching artists, and less compatible with disciplinary norms. Several of them probably couldn't have found jobs in larger universities. Over the last two decades I've watched as art history departments that serve mainly visual art students (not just in North America but also Latin America, Europe, and Asia) have become more closely aligned to the model of art history as it's practiced in the principal North American and European research universities. The Impending Single History of Art is mainly about how art history is written, but there is a parallel in the ways it is taught: we are losing diversity in the name of disciplinary norms.
Athenaeum Review, 2019
An essay about the ways that artists are educated at the college level (MFA, PhD). For the past 1... more An essay about the ways that artists are educated at the college level (MFA, PhD). For the past 15 years or so there has been a steep rise in quantified evaluations of art students: more rubrics, capstone achievements, learning outcomes and goals, assessment criteria. The education of artists for the next generation is becoming a matter of standardized, comparable criteria--a bureaucratization of art.
Oulipo has had tremendous influence on writing in the nearly 60 years since it began, but the ide... more Oulipo has had tremendous influence on writing in the nearly 60 years since it began, but the idea of inventing condtraints for yourself, and then talking only about the constraints and not the literature that they produce (except as trhe outcomes of constraints) produces the strange situation of a literature whose literary qualities are not mentioned. This is an attempt to understand that,
This is a long essay on just the first book (out of seven) of Arno Schmidt's enormous novel "Bott... more This is a long essay on just the first book (out of seven) of Arno Schmidt's enormous novel "Bottom's Dreram." My thesis is that the book asks to be read extremely slowly and carefully, following as many of the thousands of citations as possible, because it presents an argument about Poe (that is, it isn't just a novel that can be read for its characters). The text is online, at http://writingwithimages.com/4-7-arno-schmidt. All comments welcome, as always.
The pdf is linked above. This is an essay on the globalization of art theory, in French. It wi... more The pdf is linked above.
This is an essay on the globalization of art theory, in French.
It will appear in the official book to commemorate the launch of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It is excerpted from a work in progress called The Impending Single History of Art : North Atlantic Art History and its Alternatives. Information about that book, and chapters in English, are on my website. Please send comments to me via the contact form on the website.
This is a class that uses the text "The End of Diversity in Art Historical Writing." It is intend... more This is a class that uses the text "The End of Diversity in Art Historical Writing." It is intended to survey styles of art historical writing worldwide.
This is a syllabus for one of my grad-level classes on experimental writing. This one is on texts... more This is a syllabus for one of my grad-level classes on experimental writing. This one is on texts with images, and it includes fiction and hybrid forms. It's intended as a survey of contemporary writing that contains images (mainly photographs).
This is a syllabus for one of my survey classes of world art history, from its beginnings to c. 1... more This is a syllabus for one of my survey classes of world art history, from its beginnings to c. 1850. I wonder if it might be one of the longer syllabi out there?
This is an older (2010) syllabus for a class I taught introducing visual studies.