Books
Space Oddities: Die homerische Irrfahrt in Bildkünsten und Populärkultur 1800–2021 (Europa – USA – Südamerika)
The uncertain journey of the ἀνήρ (man), who initially remains nameless in the Odyssey, who fails and succeeds as Οὔτις (nobody), is experiencing a new boom as a timeless construct that can be adapted to different areas of today’s globalized world, characterized by mobility and migration movement.
This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the Odyssey’s reception in a wide variety of genres from different cultural contexts from Europe to North and South America and aims to encourage further interdisciplinary and transmedia research.
In Italien Karriere machen: Der flämische Maler Michele Desubleo zwischen Rom, Bologna und Venedig (ca. 1624-1664)
The Flemish painter Michele Desubleo (* 1601, Maubeuge; † 1676, Parma) had a successful career in Italy. In Rome, Bologna and Venice, he established contacts with some of the most renowned painters and art collectors of his time and secured honourable commissions. He thus represents a special case of an immigrant painter. However, the artistic recognition he received during his lifetime could not prevent Desubleo’s name from rapidly disappearing from art historical literature after his death.
This monograph explores for the first time the complex mechanisms that led to the success and oblivion of a foreign painter in 17th century Italy. The study reveals the multi-faceted picture of a gifted artist and traces his unusual rise far from official career paths.
Konstantinopel – Samos – Berlin: Verpfändung, Fundteilung und heimliche Ausfuhr von Antiken am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges
The years before World War I were marked by political upheaval and uncertainty in the eastern Mediterranean. 1910–1914 excavations of the Royal Prussian Museums in Berlin took place on the island of Samos. Numerous finds from the excavation reached Berlin, only a part of them by way of the official division of finds. In 1913–1914 Germany also negotiated with the Sublime Porte about the pledging of antiquities from the Archaeological Museum of Constantinople/Istanbul with the aim of permanent possession by the Berlin museums. The articles presented in this volume shed light on the intensive entanglement between politics, business, science and culture in the late phase of the German Reich.
Gefälschte Zeit: Das Phänomen der Fälschung (in) der Kunstgeschichte seit dem Florentiner Ottocento
Hitherto, art forgeries have merely been perceived as a shadow of art history. In fact, they are not only interwoven with it in manifold ways, but also part of the (global) cultural transfer. The forgeries of Giovanni Bastianini and Wolfgang Beltracchi, for example, arise against the background of a changing European art history from its development as a scientific discipline in the 19th century and a national concept of art to its erosion in the 21st century due to an increasingly globalized concept of art. In the context of this history of art history, forgeries are analyzed both as part of the reception history of a work of art and in their interaction with art history.
Unsichtbares sichtbar machen: Strategien zur Darstellung des überirdischen Raumes in der italienischen Malerei im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert
The divine heaven is a complicated, albeit ubiquitous pictorial object whose theologically justified 'non-representability' places special demands on visualisation. Although none of the painters knew their subject matter, recurring principles can be discerned with which approaches to solving the problem of depicting the 'invisible' were formulated and the viewer could thus be brought closer to the beyond. Modes of images abstracted from the analysis enable a systematic recording of the celestial images. Here, traditional designs and new conventions are juxtaposed, which need to be evaluated and contextualised in this framework.
Corpus Cranach: Lucas Cranach I und Lucas Cranach II Verzeichnis der Gemälde unter Berücksichtigung von Werkstattumfeld und Epigonen
Since 2006, the author has been systematically collecting images of works as well as digital data on Lucas Cranach and his environment. In January 2010, an overview of the panel works was published within the database cranach.net, which included about 3060 works at the time of the catalog publication. All individual works are documented in detail in dossiers with a constantly growing volume of data, taking into account the scientific discourse. With more than 11000 painting images, 6100 documents, 21000 files and 3000 recorded publications, unprecedented possibilities are available to the scientific community. As tools of digital art history, the linked database structure forms the prerequisites for an accelerating gain in knowledge.
CORPUS CRANACH shows an overview of all works, which are provided with persistent work numbers for identification and are catalogued according to motif. This makes it possible for the first time to systematically evaluate the oeuvre of the Cranach workshops and their epigones.
»Wie man Skulpturen aufnehmen soll«: Der Beitrag der Antiquare im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert
Since the years around 1500, there have been printed reproductions of ancient statues and other monuments of antiquity. After a long period of mainly investigating which works these prints represent, interest is now increasingly turning to how they do so.
This paper examines when and in what contexts ancient works began to be systematically reproduced from multiple views in the 16th and 17th centuries. The antiquarian, and not only the artistic, preoccupation with antique sculptures made a decisive contribution to 'multiple views' and 'documentary modes of representation'. Unusual antique works from Egypt, for example, or non-European figures of gods and 'idols' required innovative illustrations from several perspectives.
It was not until the 19th century that new forms of reproduction of sculpture were to be experimented with and their use discussed - right up to Heinrich Wölfflin's reflections on "how to photograph sculpture", which were geared towards photography.
Women Cross Media: East Asian Photography, Prints, and Porcelain from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
This volume examines one of the rarely studied phenomena in East Asian Art: the cross-media flows of images between porcelain, paintings, prints and souvenir photography in China and Japan during the 18th to early 20th centuries. Focusing on both concepts of femininity and their transcultural impact in the production of meanings, a wide range of issues are discussed in essays by closely investigating selected objects from three collections of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany.
Sehen im Vergleich: Transformationen von Blicken in der persischen und westeuropäischen Buchmalerei
Vera Beyer compares transformations of gazes and dispositifs of the gaze in Persian and Western European book illumination from the 13th to the 16th century. How are desirous gazes rendered legitimate? What are the conditions of seeing God? When is the contemplation of an image idolatry? The book examines such questions regarding topoi that circulate in both visual cultures: Glimpses of the beauty of the Old Testament Joseph, the curtain before the throne of God, the portrait of Alexander the Great, dreaming authors and unbelieving idol worshippers.
The transformations of these topoi counteract universalisations as well as essentialisations, such as an image-hostile Islam versus an image-friendly Christianity. By combining transcultural art history and image studies, the book thus tests a transcultural critique of the gaze.
Daniel Spoerri : Topographies: Networks of Exchange
Daniel Spoerri's oeuvre occupies the intersection of several artistic trends and tendencies. Most commentators on his work, on the other hand, considered him a New Realist artist, and his work is often reduced to that of the trap paintings. This abbreviation, consolidated by art historiography and largely formed by the classificatory efforts of Pierre Restany, corresponds, however, to only a small part of his oeuvre. Spoerri's films, his poetry, his books, the MAT editions, his importance as an organiser of events and exhibitions are examples of the diversity and openness of his activities. In the 1960s he was close to Fluxus and Zero and laid the foundation for Eat Art. Understanding the artist's work as part of transnational networks that combine different disciplines and theoretical and material approaches suggests a re-evaluation of Spoerri's interactions with a wide range of contemporary actors. This book explores these questions as the proceedings of the colloquium "Topographies of Daniel Spoerri: the artist in his networks" organised by Jill Carrick and Déborah Laks at DFK Paris on 22 and 23 October 2018.
Le travail de Daniel Spoerri se situe au croisement de plusieurs courants et tendances artistiques. Pour la plupart des commentateurs, il est pourtant généralement abordé comme un artiste du Nouveau Réalisme, et son œuvre antonnée au Tableau-Piège. Cette place délimitée, forgée par une historiographie largement marquée par les efforts classificateurs de Pierre Restany, ne correspond en réalité qu’à une petite partie de son travail. Ses films, sa poésie, ses livres, les éditions MAT, ses activités d’organisateur d’évènements et d’expositions sont autant d’exemples de la diversité et de l’ouverture de ses champs de recherche. Dans les années 1960, il se rapproche de Fluxus et de Zero et pose les fondements du Eat Art. Son œuvre s’inscrit dans des réseaux transnationaux mêlant des disciplines, des approches théoriques et matérielles différentes, et il importe aujourd’hui de réévaluer ses interactions avec les différents acteurs de la période. Cet ouvrage constitue les actes du colloque « Topographies de Daniel Spoerri : l’artiste en ses réseaux » organisé au DFK Paris par Jill Carrick et Déborah Laks les 22 et 23 octobre 2018.
Denkmal_Emotion: Politisierung – Mobilisierung – Bindung
The "emotional turn", it seems, has meanwhile arrived in the field of Heritage Studies. The connection between emotions and heritage/monuments can be regarded as a reciprocal and interdependent relationship. Understood as an integral part of processes of individual and collective meaning-making, emotions are being reconceived as a formative aspect of valorization, appropriation and rejection rather than their mere by-product, and as such are being recognized as constitutive for the field of heritage conservation. The essays gathered here reflect in their range the different facets of the complex relationship between Heritage Studies and emotions, be it in relation to the political dimensions of that relationship, to the development of new emotional points of reference or to very concrete processes of the appropriation or rejection of heritage.
Kultur unterwegs: Relevanz einer Instanz: Reisebilder, Dingwelten, Perspektiven
Why is it that culture today is no longer accorded the power that Jacob Burckhardt still attested to it as a matter of course? 13 experts from a wide range of cultural disciplines seek answers to the pandemic question of the relevance of culture. Culture can be a vital driver of sustainability, inclusion and democracy. To do so, it must take back its relative autonomy, understand itself politically, and be self-critical. What needs to be defended and where do we need to critique our tasks for a transformation? "Culture on the Move" illuminates multi-perspective approaches for an own judgment.
Turing Complete User: Resisting Alienation in Human Computer Interaction
Interface Critique book
Around 2010, the field of human-computer interaction and the IT industry at large started to invest in reforming their terminology: banning some words and reversing the meanings of others to camouflage the widening gap between users and developers, to smooth the transition from personal computers to “dumb terminals”, from servers to “buckets”, from double-clicking to saying “OK, Google”. Computer users also learnt to talk, loud and clear, to be understood by Siri, Alexa, Google Glass, HoloLens, and other products that perform both listening and answering. Maybe it is exactly this amalgamation of input and output into a “conversation” that defines the past decade, and it will be the core of HCI research in the years to come. Who is scripting the conversations with these invisible ears and mouths? How can users control their lines? When hardware and software dissolve into anthropomorphic forms and formless “experiences”, words stop being mere names and metaphors. They do not only appeal to the imagination and give shape to invisible products. Words themselves become interfaces – and every change in vocabulary matters.
Böse Bilder? Theorie und Ethik der Gewaltfotografie
Images of violence, such as war photos and photos documenting the horrors of the Shoah, have become the subject of ethical controversies. While some hope that these pictures can make us more aware of the suffering inflicted on others, others believe that true empathy cannot be fostered through images and that human suffering can never be adequately represented in any media. Throughout these discussions images are often talked about as independent agents with actual moral responsibilities; images that show evil are thus not understood as images of evil, but as evil in themselves. This book aims to critically examine those assumptions and controversies.
Fair und gerecht? Restitution und Provenienz im Kunstmarkt. Praxis – Probleme – Perspektiven
For the first time in October 2019 the symposium held in Munich shed light on the historically and legally complex topic of Nazi looted art, restitution and provenance from the perspective of the art trade. The conference provided insights into the practice of the established art trade, which stands up for the mediation and preservation of cultural goods on a high level of expertise and responsibility. The publication on the conference "Fair and just?" includes all lectures and discussion rounds of the event. Against the backdrop of the legal-moral tension renowned lawyers, provenance researchers and art dealers examined various best-practice solutions with the aim of enabling the art trade to continue to work in the future.
Cranach - Parerga und Paralipomena: Neues zu Lucas Cranach und seinen Söhnen
Within 16 detailed essays, various aspects of Cranach research are covered. They show a selection of results from working with the database www.cranach.net, including four reattributions of portraits previously considered as early works by Cranach. Working with this digital research database has yielded countless other new findings, which are documented within extensive digital dossiers of the works in the CORPUS CRANACH catalog raisonné. The volume of essays aims to build a bridge to new methods of digital art history, which enable a considerable acceleration of the scientific discourse and, consequently, a faster gain of knowledge.
Treffpunkt Rom 1810: Die Geschichte eines Künstlerstammbuchs
Kataloge der Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Vol. 68, ed. by Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel
In 2019 Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel was able to acquire an unpublished “album amicorum” which the Livonian nobleman Wilhelm von Blankenhagen (1761–1840) collected in Rome in 1810. The collection includes over 30 drawings by such important artists as Thorvaldsen, Koch or the Lukas brothers Overbeck and Pforr. Russian and Livonian artists such as Matvejeff or Grass are represented, as are the English archaeologist and Greece traveler Dodwell. Like Schick or Rauch, most of the artists came from Caroline von Humboldt's circle.
The importance of the album for research is great. With an excellent basis of sources, it exemplifies the network of relationships between the artists of the Humboldt Circle.
Photography and Modern Public Housing in Los Angeles
In the 1940s, Los Angeles faced an acute housing crisis. The local housing authority responded with a controversial program of slum clearance and public housing construction as well as photography that presented the crisis in innovative ways. This book brings these photographs together with hitherto unavailable sources to reveal a largely uninvestigated concept of housing photography. Case studies from Los Angeles, New York, and Berlin together with FBI records and nearly forgotten bulletins invite a new understanding of the history of housing and photography as one in which women scholars and commercial photographers played pivotal roles.
Funded by the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation)
The Second Glance: Women
With the integrated exhibition series “The Second Glance”, visitors are invited to deal with current, socially relevant themes in the permanent collection of the Bode Museum. “Women” is the second project of this series. By means of concrete artistic objects and the simultaneous engagement with the respective personalities they portray, the visitors gain new insights into both the role of women in history and their particular standing in society as well as the artistic execution of pictorial subjects related to women.
Further Publication: The Second Glance: All Forms of Love
Der zweite Blick: Frauen
With the integrated exhibition series “The Second Glance”, visitors are invited to deal with current, socially relevant themes in the permanent collection of the Bode Museum. “Women” is the second project of this series. By means of concrete artistic objects and the simultaneous engagement with the respective personalities they portray, the visitors gain new insights into both the role of women in history and their particular standing in society as well as the artistic execution of pictorial subjects related to women.
English Version: The Second Glance: Women
Further Publication: The Second Glance. All Forms of Love
Il viaggio della marchesa di Caravaggio Costanza Colonna da Genova a Napoli a bordo di una galera maltese: Lettere inedite
In questo studio vengono analizzate diverse lettere inedite scritte e ricevute da alcuni illustri membri della famiglia Colonna, tra cui la marchesa di Caravaggio Costanza Colonna. Questa nobildonna fu un’importante protettrice di Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Attraverso queste e diverse altre missive è possibile avere un’idea della vita quotidiana della marchesa e dei suoi stretti contatti con la famiglia dell’artista. In particolare queste lettere ci permettono di seguire direttamente il viaggio via mare che Costanza e il figlio fra’ Fabrizio Sforza Colonna intrapresero nel giugno del 1607 da Genova sino a Napoli. Le lettere documentano anche un incontro che ci permette di comprendere meglio come il Caravaggio, con l’appoggio della potente famiglia Colonna, sia salito, quasi certamente, a bordo di una delle galere comandate dal ‘caravaggino’ fra’ Fabrizio in modo da poter raggiungere in tutta sicurezza l’isola di Malta.
This study analyses several unpublished letters written and received by some illustrious members of the Colonna family, including the Marquise of Caravaggio Costanza Colonna. This noblewoman was an important protectress of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.Through these and several other letters it is possible to get an insight into the Marquise’s daily life and her close contacts with the artist's family. In particular, these letters allow us to follow directly the journey by sea that Costanza and her son fra’ Fabrizio Sforza Colonna undertook in June 1607 from Genoa to Naples. The letters also document a meeting that enables us to better understand how Caravaggio, with the support of the powerful Colonna family, almost certainly boarded one of the galleys commanded by the 'caravaggino' fra’ Fabrizio in order to reach safely the island of Malta.
Wilhelm Uhde: Briefe an Freunde, Künstler und Kunsthändler; mit zwei unveröffentlichten Texten "Mona Lisa und Olympia" "Der Sammler"
Wilhelm Uhde was a dilettante in the best sense of the word, as an art dealer, as an art historian and as a collector. Before the First World War, he had rendered outstanding services to the Parisian avant-garde, then concentrated primarily on promoting so-called Naive painting. He lived in Paris from 1904, with interruptions due to the World Wars. The book publishes letters to dealers and friends and thus traces the situation of a deeply convinced European, living between nations, who was deprived of his citizenship by the National Socialists. After the Second World War, he had only two years left, and now abstract painting also came into his focus.
Wilhelm Uhde était un dilettante dans le meilleur sens du terme : en tant que marchand d'art, historien de l'art et collectionneur. Avant la Première Guerre mondiale, il avait rendu des services exceptionnels à l'avant-garde parisienne. Entre-deux-guerres, il s'est concentré sur la promotion de la peinture dite naïve. Il vit à Paris à partir de 1904, avec des interruptions dues aux guerres mondiales. Le livre publie ses correspondances avec des collectionneurs, des amis. Il retrace par la même occasion le parcours d'un Européen convaincu, vivant entre les nations, déchu de sa citoyenneté allemande par les nationaux-socialistes. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il ne reste à Uhde plus que deux ans à vivre ; la peinture abstraite arrive alors au cœur de ses préoccupations.
The Internationale Kunstausstellung Dresden 1926 in Historic Photographs by Alexander Paul Walther: Annotated edition
The 1926 Dresden International Art Exhibition was one of the most prominent of its kind during the Weimar Republic. Its achievements also formed the basis for the first documenta in Kassel in 1955. Historical photographs by the architectural photographer Alexander Paul Walther are used here to trace the appearance, intentions and impact of this major event.
These important photographic documents are held in the archives of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and have never before been published together and in full. This annotated edition has been produced by the Dresden Albertinum under the BMBF joint research project “From Object to Exhibit” as an inspiring basis for further research.
A German version is also available online.: https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/arthistoricum/catalog/book/695
Den Sammlern auf der Spur: Provenienzforschung zu kolonialen Kontexten am Roemer- und Pelizaeus- Museum Hildesheim 2017/18
„On the Trail of the Collectors” presents the results of a provenance research project conducted at the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim in 2017/18. The focus of the project was on the provenance of ethnographic objects that came to Hildesheim from the comprehensive holdings of the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin at the turn of the 19th/20th century, and on the circumstances under which these objects were acquired. Most of these artefacts from almost every continent were collected in colonial contexts. The volume provides biographical information on the collectors, and a discussion of the very heterogeneous ways in which they acquired ethnographic objects.
Feld und Signal: Aporien der Malerei bei Elʹ Lisickij und Kazimir Malevič
The book focuses on two central figures of the historical avant-garde: Kazimir Malevič and El ’Lisickij. The year 1928 marked a turning point for both of them. Lisickij terminates his practice of abstract painting in order to concentrate on the production of monumental, politically motivated installations deploying advanced media technology. Lisickij's former colleague Kazimir Malevič, on the other hand, is not only returning to the handicraft of painting: All of a sudden, in his paintings the human figure reappears, yet in the midst of a dystopian, empty world. Both artistic strategies can be read as reactions to the excesses of modernity that outline our present situation at the end of the 1920s.
Funded by the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation)