Alternative art histories

WORKSHOP RESOURCE DRAWING TOGETHER: ALTERNATIVE ART HISTORIES

ART history isn't like vitamins - IN THAT it's always good to take them. Art history is more like pills in an unmarked container. if you take one it might be your own work then suffers. JAMES ELKINS

This resource playfully explores 'art history' and what that means in personal terms, in art rooms, and beyond. It has been written for teachers but is also easily adaptable as a lesson resource for students, in particular for KS4 or 5.

INTRODUCTION

Best start with this question: What is Art History?

Which words help to describe your understanding of Art History? Could you hint at some of Art History's truths, challenges and complications in just 5 words?
Is Art History something that exists in tangible forms, for example, as old paintings, sculptures and artefacts? Or is Art History the study of such objects, artefacts and related matters?
Is Art History fixed and factual or contested and subject to change?
Who is Art History for? What people or point does it serve?
(How) do artists use Art History and how might this differ to art historians? How might others, for example, archaeologists, scientists or hedge-fund managers, use Art History in different ways?
If you had to create an abstract representation of 'Art History', what shape, form, textures or colours might it be?

SHAPING ART HISTORIES

Introduction over, I'll stop writing 'Art History' with initial capital letters. I'll also mostly refer to art histories from now, in the plural, as is increasingly common and I tend to do when teaching. The notion of a singular grand narrative for 'Art History' has become increasingly dated and contemporary art historians and artists are now far more critical, questioning and challenging of such matters.

But how d0 art histories come about, and which people, publications and institutions shape these, for good or bad? And then, most relevant for this resource, how might we explore these histories in playful and practical ways?

Portrait of Giorgio Vasari from Le vite de’ piv eccellenti pittori, scvltori, e architettori (1568) by Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, architect and writer who rose to fame during the Renaissance. His renowned novel The Lives of the Most Eminent Sculptors, Painters, and Architects (1550) earned him the title 'The Father of Art History'.

By all accounts this encyclopaedic collection is a peculiar combination of facts, fiction and gossip. And as can be the way in art histories, Vasari favoured the artists that were closest to him whilst ignoring many others, in his own country and beyond.

ACTIVITY
The image to the left is a self-portrait by Giorgio Vasari that features within his own book, The Lives of the Most Eminent Sculptors, Painters, and Architects . Vasari has chosen to frame himself with imagery from his own time and interests in art history, and has done this via an established style and technique of that period (naturally, because anything else at that point would have been out-of-place and likely received with bafflement).

Inspired by Vasari's decorative frame of references, how might you illustrate yourself surrounded by insights into the art histories that have shaped you? (Or alternatively, work in pairs to do this, sharing your insights as you go). What artworks, inspirations, experiences or encounters would you choose to illustrate? What facts, fiction or gossip might you playfully add into the mix?

In 1950, the art historian E.H. Gombrich wrote a book called The Story of Art. Since then it has never been out of print. It might be suggested that alternative (hi)stories—of both graphic design AND of revisionist histories—could also be told by comparing its various editions, additions, amendments and front covers.

"Gombrich's book is a brilliant answer to a long-standing problem: how to unify the threads of history into one single compelling story. When art history got under way in the Renaissance it was a complicated mixture of biographies, off-the-cuff criticism, plain old descriptions, unreliable anecdotes, and dry stuff about artist' birthplaces and those who employed them. It is as if the first art historian, the Italian Giorgio Vasari, was not quite sure how to write about art. He gossiped a little, and documented a little, and spent a fair amount of time just praising the artists he admired." James Elkins, Stories of Art

ACTIVITY
Many of the book covers for The Story of Art—including the original and the most recent—rely on text only. Why do you think this is the case? Where would you begin in choosing a singular image, or a limited selection of images, to represent the history of art? What selections or styles might be appropriate?

How might you re-design the cover for The Story of Art to hint at some of the potential issues or complexities of writing a book such as this? (Read on for more info).

The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich is a remarkably accessible book that plots the evolution of art from ancient times to the modern era. It has also become a key focus and point of criticism for the flaws and failures of 'Art History'. Gombrich prioritises artworks by white male artists from the western world at the expense of wider and more diverse representation. He also completely excludes female artists—the first edition has none whatsoever, the 16th edition has only one.

In 2022, art historian Katy Hessel responded to this lack of diverse representation by creating a book of works by a range of international female artists titled The Story of Art Without Men. Starting in 1500 and shooting through to artists born in the 1990s, The Story of Art Without Men re-addresses the gender neglect and, in doing so, covers many substantial movements from dadaism to civil-rights-era antiracist art.

ORDERING AND ORGANISING ART HISTORIES

Just for fun—because I know how to have a good time—I've put the chapter headings for Gombrich's and Hessel's books alongside each other, below. Both books (mostly) take a chronological approach. However, they start and end in different eras and consequently don't align alongside each other—not least because Hessel deliberately sets out to fill in some significant areas of neglect.

THE STORY OF ART BY E.H. GOMBRICH

Strange beginnings: Prehistoric and primitive peoples; Ancient America
Art for eternity: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete
The great awakening: Greece, seventh to fifth century BC"
"The realm of beauty: Greece and the Greek world, fourth century BC to first century AD
World conquerors: Romans, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, first to fourth century AD
A parting of ways: Rome and Byzantium, fifth to thirteenth century
Looking eastwards: Islam, China, second to thirteenth century
Western art in the melting pot: Europe, sixth to eleventh century
The Church militant: The twelfth century
The Church triumphant: The thirteenth century
Courtiers and burghers: The fourteenth century
The conquest of reality: The early fifteenth century
Tradition and innovation: The later fifteenth century in Italy
Tradition and innovation: The fifteenth century in the North
Harmony attained: Tuscany and Rome, early sixteenth century
Light and colour: Venice and northern Italy, early sixteenth century
The new learning spreads: Germany and the Netherlands, early sixteenth century
A crisis of art: Europe, later sixteenth century
Vision and visions: Catholic Europe, first half of the seventeenth century
The mirror of nature: Holland, seventeenth century
Power and glory: Italy, later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Power and glory: France, Germany and Austria, late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
The age of reason: England and France, eighteenth century
The break in tradition: England, America, and France, late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
Permanent revolution: The nineteenth century
In search of new standards: The late nineteenth century
Experimental art: The first half of the twentieth century
A story without end: The triumph of Modernism / An altered mood / The changing past

THE STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN BY KATY HESSEL

Paving the way c.1500-c.1900
Painting herself into the canon
Looking to a heroic past
From Realism to Spiritualism
what made art modern c.1870-c.1950
War, identity and the Paris avant-garde
The aftermath of the First World War
Modernism in the Americas
War and the rise of new methods and media
postwar women c.1949-c.1970
The great era of experimentalism
Political change and new abstractions
The body
Weaving new traditions
Taking ownership 1970-2000
The era of feminism
The 1980s
The 1990s
Radical change in Britain
Still writing 2000-present
Decolonising narratives and reworking traditions
Figuration in the twenty-first century
The 2020s

ACTIVITY

Read through the chapter headings carefully. What might you anticipate to find within these? Which artists and art (hi)stories come immediately to mind? If you had to do a doodle from your imagination for each heading, what might you do? How might you connect this to your own experiences, or develop this further as a group exercise?—for example, by distributing the titles randomly and then collaboratively constructing a visual timeline.
Which chapter themes would you consider closest to your own areas of expertise? Which, for example, would you opt for in a gameshow quiz? Which would you struggle with when quizzed upon?
Is it possible to combine these two lists in a fitting way?

THE SHAPES OF ART HISTORIES

When Giorgio Vasari wrote the earliest of art histories,The Lives of the Most Eminent Sculptors, Painters, and Architects (1550) he didn't write or illustrate a chronological timeline. But I do love that he produced a series of woodcuts illustrating his favourite artists (and that he did this in a style that reminds me of Panini collectors cards).

But many artists and art historians have tried to organise histories of art into helpful or entirely baffling timelines, frameworks or illustrations. Below are a few examples:

Art historian Alfred Barr has shaped the way that artists and art historians study modern European and American art. He was appointed the first director of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929 and promoted the art of modernists like Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Matisse and Cézanne.

Barr had a penchant for drawing torpedo-shaped diagrams that described the thrust and movement of modern art. In the 1941 version, above, the tail of the torpedo is populated with the pioneering Cézanne and other Post-Impressionists. Connected to the tail is the School of Paris and the "Rest of Europe" comprising the body of the missile, while the art of the United States and Mexico, growing out from Europe, comprises the nose of the bomb. Art historian Robert Storr points out that Barr's use of a torpedo to express the trajectory of modern art stems from Barr's feelings of World War II and the prospect in 1941 that Europe itself—along with its art—would be destroyed, and it would be left to the U.S. and Mexico to continue the push forward. Edited from this source.

Ad Reinhardt was a prominent American abstract artist, writer, critic, and educator. He created many cartoons that made fun of the art world and these brought him fame as a wry commentator on art and art histories. In this famous cartoon, above, 1946, Ad Reinhardt tried to encapsulate the essence of modernism with its history and conflicts. The tree of modern art has its roots deep in history—the Greeks are here, and so are Persian miniatures and Japanese prints. The roots represent the four pillars of Post-Impressionism: Vincent Van Gogh, George Seurat, Paul Cézanne, and Paul Gauguin. The tree is burdened by the weights of "subject matter" and "business as art patron."

In 2006 illustrator Sara Fanelli was commissioned by Tate Modern to design a 40 metres long Timeline of 20th Century artists. A section of this is displayed above. It's interesting to speculate how this not-entirely-but-mostly Western white male dominated timeline might be updated now, just 18 years later. Or perhaps such a task might be deemed too challenging. And here's a problematic question: would further diversifying this timeline compromise or dilute the status given to those artists that are present, given that they form much of the Tate collection?

Thin Black Line(s) (2011) by Lubaina Himid, above, is a diagram illustrating “moments and connections” between all the diasporan women artists who showed work in exhibitions at the Africa Centre, Battersea Arts Centre and the ICA in London during the 1980s. The artwork was created specifically for a display she curated at Tate Britain that shared the name Thin Black Line(s) (2011-12). As with Katy Hessel's Story of Art Without Men, Himid sets out to celebrate less-acknowledged female artists and to re-address the discriminatory imbalance.

The artist Loren Munk is known for his paintings that tackle art histories combining intentionally garish charts and maps with exhaustive historic research and complex systems of thinking. His paintings mostly lay out the story of Modernism with its cast of characters, styles, philosophies, politics, and interconnections. Edited from this source.

The History of the World, by Jeremy Deller, 1988, is a personal graphic visual presentation of the history, influence and context for acid house and brass band music. For Deller, the joining of acid house and brass band music illustrates the historical breadth of the spirit of dissent that characterised opposition to the Thatcherite break-up both of the coal industry and Britain’s wider industrial and manufacturing base. Perhaps there is also something potentially pointed or mischievous in using a brainstorm to do this—a brainstorm being an icon of neoliberal business meetings.

George Maciunas was founder of the anti-institutional, international art collective known as Fluxus. He was also a relentless archivist who made a series of illustrated charts from the mid-’50s to the mid-’70s that were very influential on Ward Shelley, a contemporary New York artist. Shelley's multicoloured, meticulously researched timelines chronicle everything from the genesis of science fiction to the history of Fluxus itself. In the image above, and in a detail below, you can see Shelley’s take on Fluxus history - Extra Large Fluxus Diagram V. 3 (2011). Everything red in the chart stems from Maciunas. Other colours represent links with additional concepts and/or key artists and thinkers.

ACTIVITIES
Aside from Sara Fanelli's Tate Modern timeline (which was a commissioned work), the examples above represent highly selective and personal interpretations of art histories. The words, sequencing, scales and styles all add up to give voice to individual interests and standpoints.

Which artists, art movements, inspirations and art stories would you choose to celebrate or draw attention to? How might you do this via your own visual responses? What lines, shapes, colours, imagery, quotes, connections, styles, fonts or formats might you utilise?
What alternative methods could be used to document art histories in fairer and more even ways? e.g. not privileging white western European male artists. This is something art historian James Elkins has reflected upon. For example, what might the history of art look like if it was written in relation to the land mass or populations of countries? Or would it be possible (enlightening, even) to write art histories in reverse—for why is it that art history timelines tend to start in the past and conclude in the present, for isn't it true that we can only observe history from our present perspective?

What experimental methods might be used to measure your own interactions with art histories? For example, how might you map movements through a museum or gallery space to show what you or others might favour or neglect? How about a review/audit of an art-related Instagram account or a book shelf—could this reveal something of your art history interests?
How might you tell the story of your own personal art history—the experiences and encounters that have shaped your own creative development?
Could you incorporate less-anticipated memories and influences, perhaps from popular culture or on a more local or personal level? For example ...

The images above are 5 immediate recollections that came to mind when I thought about my own art-related encounters at a very young age. Okay, so I didn't get taken to art galleries as a young child. But I did have a fascination for picture books and illustrated characters on cereal boxes and tv, and these do form some of my earliest memories of looking intently at pictures (and very contently too, thank-you!) .

Write a list of 10 formative experiences, encounters or inspirations that have shaped your own personal art histories. And then, using drawings, images and words, begin to map out your own personal timeline.
Consider how you might work as a group to interweave, connect and contrast your individual experiences and recollections. How might you embrace the activity to celebrate the influences that grander narratives might overlook? For example, how might fashion, music, video games, anime or memes fit into your own personal timeline? Would an eclectic, all-embracing approach be a more honest and authentic representation of your art histories?
Alternatively (and here's a prompt, with thanks to Jon Nicholls), what would, for example, Richard Scarry's version of a History of Art look like? Indulge me here: his books (double-page spread shown above) fascinated me as a child, and I still love his drawings today. But really. Imagine! What would his History of Art look like? His illustrations of processes and productions and/or his imaginative cross-sections—these might be the inspiration you never knew you needed. Go on, illustrate a cross-section of an art historian's head, or something.

NEW VIEWS OF ART HAVE EMERGED TO CHALLENGE THE OLD, COMPLICATING THOUGH NOT ERASING WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. SO WHAT WE NEED NOW IS A BROAD BUT ACCESSIBLE FRAMEWORK TO GET ACROSS THE COMPLEXITY OF WHAT ART HAS BECOME NEIL WALTON

The table above was created by Neil Walton, Subject Leader for PGCE Art & Design at Goldsmiths, University of London. Neil believes that thinking historically is essential to getting a handle on how we should be teaching Art and Design, because the concept of art has significantly shifted over its history. New views of art have emerged to challenge the old, complicating though not erasing what has gone before. So with this in mind, Neil set out to devise a broad but accessible framework to get across the complexity of what art has become. You can read more of Neil's thinking here.

This table has proven to be debatable and useful. It's important to note that it provides a conceptual framework rather than chronological art-period divisions, although having 'Modern' central suggests that the titles could equally be 'Pre-Modern', 'Modern' and 'Post-Modern', which then seems to emphasise a pre/post 20th Century Eurocentricity.

Regardless, it's interesting to pick an artwork with a class—for example, let's go with the Mona Lisa for popular familiarity—and then consider which column it aligns with best. The initial response to this exercise from a class, at least from our present-day standpoint, is likely to be "it's Traditional!" After-all, Leonardo Da Vinci uses established conventions and skilful techniques to create a representational response. However, the Mona Lisa is also riddled with less conventional experimentation, not least Da Vinci's approach to distorting the imaginary background and horizon line, likely inspired by Japanese prints. So then, is this form of painted collage comparable to the 'Modern' descriptors in its fragmented innovation? But then, what about Mona Lisa's famous wry and knowing smile? Is this an acknowledgement of the the viewer's presence, a breaking-down of a fourth wall that raises questions and challenges conventions? Hmm. Was the Mona Lisa 'contemporary' in its day? It's all debatable, of course, and that's not a bad starting point for considering artworks and their histories.

But what do you think? Is it possible to organise art histories in such a way as Neil Walton's table above? Or if not, what alternative methods, titles, categories or concepts might help (or hinder) to organise art histories? For example, would art histories be more evenly told if they were proportionate to, say, hemispheres or continent land-masses, or population numbers, or languages spoken? How about if organised by artists' ages, or shoe sizes, even? What existing issues might be resolved, and what new issues, absurdities or concerns might arise?

Is it possible to organise art histories by significant national or global histories? How might a timeline or structure of key historical events (even without dates) be used to reveal interesting and less-obvious influences and connections?

ARTISTS IN DIALOGUE WITH ART HISTORIES

Artists use art histories in ways that are far more intuitive and far less ordered than art historians. Artists can pick, choose, amalgamate or distort as they wish. Many artists have directly responded to themes of art history in their own work, often as a means of positioning themselves, challenging conventions, or evoking visual dialogues with those they admire. Below are some prominent examples that immediately come to mind (which of course is telling in itself):

Las Meninas (Spanish for 'The Ladies-in-waiting') is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez (top left, above). The painting depicts a room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, some of whom look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. This complex painting is considered not only a reflection of the artist and multiple subjects, but perhaps also a reflection on art histories and the future of painting itself, incorporating multiple references to other works and approaches to portraiture.

In 1957, Picasso produced a vast series of works in response to Las Meninas. His series (with 3 examples above) explored the work in abstract and critical ways whilst also serving as a commentary on political events in Spain at that time.

In 1973, Richard Hamilton, one of the founding figures of Pop Art, produced his own tribute to Picasso through his own interpretation of (Picasso's reinterpretation of) Velázquez’s masterpiece.

An obsessive fascination for art histories has driven David Hockney to question and investigate drawing and compositional techniques used by old masters, and not least Velázquez. In a more subtle way, the influence of Las Meninas by Velázquez can be seen in his 'Self-Portrait with Charlie' (Charles Dare Scheips), 2005, above.

The Student, David Hockney, 1973

Artist & Model, David Hockney, 1973

And then, to extend on the connections above, David Hockney also holds a long-standing admiration for the work of Picasso. He has produced numerous works that reference him in reverent and playful ways. The two images above were produced in 1973, the year that Picasso died.

Nancy Spero (1926-2009), produced artworks that confronted abuses of power—from the atrocities of the Vietnam War to the marginalisation of women within the art world. Her work draws from ancient mythologies and art histories—the influences of Ancient Greek and Egyptian figures are clearly evident in the work above, also created in the form of epic scrolls.

'My precious – The Hobbit, Philip Guston, Gollum, and Bruce Nauman – One Ring to Bind Them All' by Matthew Collings

Matthew Collings is a British artist and art-writer who has a remarkable capacity for re-imagining 'alternative art histories'—the title given to a recent exhibition of his from which this resource also takes its inspiration.

Collings' drawings veer from the playful to profound and bring together artists past and present in entertaining and unanticipated ways. His drawings are an energetic mash-up of facts and inventions and can include artists, musicians, writers, biblical figures, political figures and even Collings himself.

In Collings’ version of art history, timelines get tangled and the membrane between the living and dead is permeable. Collectively, his drawings are not so much a history of art as an art séance.
EMILY FARRANTO (SOURCE)

The titles and captions that Collings applies to his works often help to set the scene, or even to complicate it. This example on the left is titled 'My precious – The Hobbit, Philip Guston, Gollum, and Bruce Nauman – One Ring to Bind Them All'. Here, this peculiar party appear united together—albeit perhaps in competiton—in their quest for the precious ring, which may or may not be a portal to immortality or (in)visibility in art history, or something.

In his Arles studio, Van Gogh paints Francis Bacon in 1963 on the way to work. Francis exudes a fabulous aura of horror wherever he goes, and carries a packet of Sunblest sliced white bread for toast, and his regular paper, the Daily Telegraph.

Helen Frankenthaler and Clement Greenberg are at a party in 1973 smoking and drinking cocktails by one of Helen’s paintings when David Bowie suddenly manifests in the room under spirits from the Hilma af Klint world.

ACTIVITY
Using Matthew Collings' alternative art histories as inspiration, produce your own imagined scene(s) to bring together some of your inspirations and fascinations from art histories in playful or profound ways. The following prompts might help to get you thinking further about this:

Which four artists, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Where would you choose to host this, and what conversations or unexpected events might arise? Alternatively, which four artists would you invite for a game of tennis, or scrabble, or Twister, or something else less-anticipated? How about forming a rock band, or starting a riot, or feeding the ducks ..?
Which two artists might you imagine in a boxing ring—who would win and how and why? Alternatively, which two artists might form an unlikely alliance in a quest for something or other, be it justice, peace or front row tickets for Taylor Swift?
What gallery, museum, institution or monument holds fascination for you—and how might this become an interesting background or location for an impromptu meeting of creative minds? What artwork might you collectively encounter, debate, worship, steal or destroy—and why?
How might you take a real-life scenario from an artist's life and bring this to being through drawing? What details might you add to emphasise or enhance your imaginings? How might your choices and subsequent response prove a valuable talking point or teaching aid for others?
How might you choose an artwork or artist and link this to something personal to you—something that is not another artist or artwork? For example, a personal story, music, news, family sayings, food or favourite TV shows.