The first one is a very obvious question.
What is art history?
What is it? Is it history of art? Do we tell histories of paintings? Or is it
that art itself has a history that's different from historical figures and
periods and so on so that's the first thing I think you need to think about.
The second is can art have a history at all or is it something that's timeless
beautiful
that you don't really think about in terms of any historical sequence.
So that's the second thing that I think is really important to know about art history.
The third: how we write art history because how we write about art really
makes a difference about it.
For example let's think about if we write history about artists then it
becomes a biography and the artist biography might influence the way in
which we see their work. Or if we write about it in terms of style. We see things
very differently.
All different periods. So we need to think about what kind of ways in which we
write about art and how that affects its history.
The fourth thing you need to know is, is art history really a cultural history?
Do we need broader context? Do we need to know what was happening at the time?
What patterns of philosophy and thinking were, or can it be that artworks just
exist in their own right and have their own kind of intrinsic history that we can explore.
The fifth is how we encounter art history.
This is really important because we see art in museums for instance or galleries
or in temporary shows and they're all configured in different ways.
So in an art gallery for instance you might have a chronological sequence
going from ancient Egypt right the way through to present times. Or in a special
exhibition for instance you might have something which concentrates solely on a
particular work or style
or theme which puts art in a very different way so we see its histories rather differently.
The six thing you need to know about art history is about the institution's of art
and how they shape the history. So for instance academies of art, which were found in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, really became engines of studying art
from the ancient world of teaching art and really helping us to understand how
artists developed and how artists influence each other.
The seventh thing you need to think about is thinking about art history.
How we configure our thoughts about it.
Are we interested in psychoanalysis in art history for instance.
Do we need to understand the workings of the human mind to understand how
paintings work and how the histories are put together and do we need to look at
it in terms of the aesthetic? Is it just an object that's beautiful
therefore it has some kind of value in its own right and some kind of aesthetic
judgment can be made according to that value.
The eighth thing is really reading art
and by this, i mean we can treat it as a text.
We can look at it, it tells a story, it tells us something,
it has its own intrinsic history but it also has a series of signs and symbols
that we might be able to read and help us interpret the artwork in a different way.
The ninth thing is thinking about how we appreciate art as a physical object and
we must not forget that it is an artifact
after all so it's paint on canvas.
It's a piece of stone that's being carved. Its metal that's been formed in a
particular way or other and we need to be sensitive to how we respond to the
physicality of the object because that is part of its history.
It can have a patina for instance so some pictures change color over time
because the pigments fade so we need to be sensitive to that and realize that
these are objects that age over time that have physical qualities and they help us
respond in different ways to these artworks and the histories and stories that they tell.
The tenth thing you need to know about art history
is to really enjoy it. It's to have the confidence to look at an artwork.
Respond to it.
Don't be afraid to think "I enjoy looking at this."
That's absolutely fine and then follow your interests. An artwork is a rich archive.
You can ask all kinds of historical questions of it about artists, movements,
cultural history, philosophy,
everything is embedded in there. And so the important thing is to start with the
work itself and unravel its histories in the way that really interests you.