Developing the Picture

Wölfflin's Performance Art

Bibliographic Data

ID5808581
AuthorsDan Karlholm (Södertörn University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume3
Issue2
Pages207-215
Publication date2010-06-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhotography and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-4517 • E-ISSN: 1751-4525
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2752/175145110x12700318320512
OpenAlexW2001550933
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945) is credited for having first made use of double projection of lantern slides in lectures on art history in the early 1900s. While this bit of information is often mentioned, if at all, as of anecdotal value, it has arguably gained more weight in our own image-saturated culture. Wölfflin's lecture hall achievement is not only to virtually inaugurate for art history a systematic descriptive system based on photography, but also to perform pictures of art for the audience to understand art in artistic or visual rather than art historical terms. In order to explain and highlight the element of art in art, art is insufficient. The art-less facsimile of black-and-white photography is better suited for this purpose, by transforming the nuanced and materially captivating art object into a flat binary system of formal contrasts. This article reflects upon Wölfflin's pursuit of the aesthetic or "artistic" element in art by considering his very material and embodied laboratory teaching practice. I suggest that rather than treat Wölfflin as a hardcore formalist, he is better understood as a meta-artist, with the ultimate aim of developing the picture of art from pictures of art for all to see

Art methodology · Fine art · History of art · Installation art · Modern art · Value (mathematics · White (mutation · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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