Louise Hitchcock wrote:
> many of our faculty apply
> interdisciplinary approaches to their area of study, and students are
> encouaged to acquire sub-specialties in other disciplines such as history
> or anthropology. Many art historians see art as a modern construct and have
> extended our domain to the entire range of material culture.
This is good. Hopefully, even more remote disciplines such as music,
folklore, literature, and sciences such as metallurgy and chemistry
are also encouraged. It is almost impossible to predict the value of
one discipline to another. Many wonderful discoveries have been made
by people because of their knowledge of apparently disparate subjects.
The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts!
Not only do I believe that working artists can benefit from a deep
knowledge of art history, but also that art history can benefit from
the attention of artists who are familiar with the practical concerns
of creating art. It would also be a good plan to have a student of art
history take a course in working in the kinds of materials that they
are studying, such as pottery, metalworking, etc.
If any artifact is to be classified by its design features, then one
must be familiar with design. Failure in this can bring about wrong
divisions, and this can render statistical analyses and distribution
patterns meaningless. For a little quiz on a hoard analysis see my
site at:
http://www.writer2001.com/hoards.htm
This shows what happened when an art historical analysis was ignored!
Does anyone in your faculty study Celtic art? The Celts were very
sophisticated in their decorative art, accomplishing effects commonly
believed to have emerged much later, such as foreshortening and
attention to negative space. They sometimes also exhibited amazing
talents in composition where variations on a theme are subordinate to
a strong and well balanced design. The Bann and Lisnacrogher scabbards
from Ireland are remarkable examples of this.
Cheers,
John Hooker
--
Visit our Website at http://www.writer2001.com
Coriosolite Expert System...Animation...Poetry...Books
Hooker & Perron, Total Project Coordination
Technical Writing...Graphics...Maps...Colour Suites...Expert Systems
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|