World art studies

World art studies is an expression used to define studies in the discipline of art history, which focus on the history of visual arts worldwide, its methodology, concepts and approach. The expression is also used within the academic curricula as title for specific art history courses and schools.^[1]

Terminology

There are several expressions related to World art studies which are often used as interchangeable. Kitty Zijlmans and Wilfried Van Damme^[2] provide some more specific definitions as following

• World art studies is a concept conceived by the art historian John Onians in the early Nienties as a new field of studies, global and with a multidisciplinary approach.^[3] The multidisciplinary nature of World art studies differentiates them from world art history and global art history. The expression World art studies was used by John Onians to rename the School of Art History and World Art Studies. The concept of 'World art studies is similar to the concept of Bildwissenschaft or image-ology is equally multidisciplinary in its approach to analysis of visual images.^[4]
• Global art history refers to the study of art in present and recent past with a focus on the art worldwide and interrelated phenomena. This definition relies on the distinction operated by Bruce Mazlish between global history and world history.^[5]
• World art history refers to the study of art of the whole human history. A remark made to this expression is the use of the world history in singular (history and not histories); the use of the plural is preferred by David Summers^[6] and James Elkins.^[7]

See also

• Art history
• History of art

References

1. i.e. the School of Art History and World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and the courses at the University of Leiden.
2. Kitty Zijlmans and Wilfried Van Damme, World Art Studiesin Art History and Visual Studies in Europe: Transnational Discourses and National Frameworks, eds. Matthew Rampley, Thierry Lenain, Hubert Locher, Brill, 2012.
3. John Onians, World Art Studies and the Need for a New Natural History of Art in "Art Bulletin, n. 78, 1996.
4. Kitty Zijlmans and Wilfried Van Damme make reference to the publication edited by Klaus Sachs-Hombach Bildwissenschaft: Disziplinen, Themen, Methoden, Surhkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 2005.
5. Bruce Mazlish, An Introduction to Glocal History in Conceptualizing Global History, ed. Bruce Mazlish and Ralph Buultjens, Westview Press, 1993.
6. David Summers, Real Spaces: World Art History and the Rise of Western Modernism, Phaidon Press, New York, 2003.
7. James Elkins, Stories of Art, Routledge, New York, 2002.

Bibliography

• Is Art History Global, ed. James Elkins, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2007.
• World art studies: exploring concepts and approaches, eds. by Kitty Zijlmans and Wilfried Van Damme, Valiz, 2008.
• Global Studies. Mapping Contemporary Art and Culture, eds. Hans Belting, Jacob Birken, Andrea Buddensieg, Peter Weibel, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, 2011.
• Art History and Visual Studies in Europe: Transnational Discourses and National Frameworks, eds. Matthew Rampley, Thierry Lenain, Hubert Locher, Brill, 2012.

External links

• A reading list of recommended articles and publications relevant for the study of global art. List published by the project Global Art and the Museum, initiated in 2006 by Peter Weibel and Hans Belting at ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.