Questioning the Object of Art History
| Chair: | Oya Pancaroğlu (Istanbul/ Turkey) Horst Bredekamp (Berlin) |
The session critically engages with the broader issue of art historical methodology related to objects. Initially it will focus on terminological questions of what is defined as “object”. The larger contexts of the object should be explored and the term being set in relation to different notions and uses of the object called “chose”, “cosa”, “Ding” or “thing”. Rather than solely discussed as ontological entity, the term “object” should be seen in its meaning as “obiectum” – which means being thrown and opposed to something. The object will be discussed rather as being active and as having agency, to put emphasis on its constructive force and not just on its shape. The session is envisioned to have a dynamic relationship to other sessions of the Congress, with papers that will investigate the methodological accesses and impasses which impact the study of the object in different cultures.
To approach the question of the object in art history the panel invites papers on the following topics.
- Objects and Functionality and the Surplus of Form
- The place of utility in art historical studies
- Art history and archaeology vis-à-vis the different functions of objects
- The uselessness of functional objects and the meaning of form
- Objects and Compositions as Picture-active Deciders
- Design in form and decoration and the shaping of world-views
- Composition as key to tracing the formation of world-pictures
- Objects engendered in picture-acts
- The Microcosm of Objects and the Productions of Metaphors and Allusions
- The conceptual contexts of objects
- The power of allusion
- The micro-dimension of the object
- The Portability of Objects in the Framework of Value
- Objects as commodity of trade
- The object as item of gifting and presentation
- The object’s economical value
- Objects, Transformations and Categories
- Art historical categorization (medium, provenance, period, etc.) through shapes of objects
- Advantages and disadvantages of catalogs as a way to create order
- Transformations of the object as part of experiments