What to do with the ost Modern?Artworks? Erwin Panofsky and the Art History of Contemporary Art

Contemporaneity: historical presence in visual culture

Flora Lysen

关键词: contemporaneity;    history;    historiography;    panofsky;    barr;    exil-geschichte;   

DOI  :  10.5195/contemp.2014.81

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: University of Pittsburgh * University Library System

【 摘 要 】

In the 1930s, when the world-renowned Medieval and Renaissance art scholar Erwin Panofsky became acquainted with the New York contemporary art scene, he was challenged with the most difficult dilemma for art historians. How could Panofsky, who was firmly entrenched in the kunstwissenschaftliche study of art, use his historical methods for the scholarly research of contemporary art? Can art historians deal with the art objects of their own time? This urgent and still current question of how to think about ontemporaneity?in relation to art history is the main topic of this paper, which departs from Panofsky 1934 review of a book on modern art. In his review of James Johnson Sweeny book Plastic Redirections in 20th Century Painting, Panofsky praise for Sweeney scholarly istance?from contemporary art developments in Europe is backed by a claim for America cultural distance, rather than a (historical) removal in time. Taking a closer look at Panofsky conflation of historical/temporal distance with geographical/cultural distance, this paper demonstrates a politically situated discourse on contemporaneity, in which Panofsky proposes the act of writing about the contemporary as a redemptive act, albeit, as this paper will demonstrate, without being able to follow his own scientific method.

【 授权许可】

CC BY