ARTH 380 - Histories of Art History: Approaches to Decolonial Art

• M - 15:00-17:30
• EV-1.615
• INSTRUCTOR: CHARISSA VON HARRINGA

How have art historians approached and understood decolonial art in opposition to cultural hegemony? To what extent can we associate the development, knowledge frameworks, objects and trends of art institutions and artistic movements, within their diverse sociopolitical processes and local contexts, with colonial legacies? How has this relationship come to be redefined in the present through critical decolonial and aesthetic engagements by various artists, scholars, and institutions? This course addresses these questions through a historiographical lens, where we examine key writings, figures, debates, and theoretical schools of thought that have impacted artists and institutions since the 20th century. A main objective is to enable students to critically engage historiography as an interpretive tool, in order to understand it beyond its discrete textual existence/representation. Consequently, we will analyze exhibition techniques, and embodied artistic practices that address or develop institutional critiques that support the historical record.

This course is not limited to postcolonial and poststructuralist writings that have greatly influenced decolonial thought in the academy. It also analyzes how other influences such as the decolonization of museums, Indigenous writings, theories, and perspectives, as well as artistic movements and philosophies such as Marxism, Dadaism, and Surrealism have all contributed and continue to shape its appearance and social function. Tracing parallel issues and themes in critical museum studies relating to objects, images, collective and historical memory, we will explore how these interactions are facilitated by an expansion of experimental sites, performative intervention strategies and changing museum relations that draw new publics and contexts. Students will be introduced to key terms and concepts relating to a body of critical theory (with an emphasis on what constitutes a ‘critical’ perspective) in cultural and postcolonial studies, as they investigate ideas concerning, decolonization, representation, national and cultural identity, site-specificity, worldmaking, Indigeneity, agency, and sovereignty. Students will hopefully come away with a clearer understanding of decolonial processes as they are practiced today from an understanding of the historical tension and dynamic interactions that occupy the porous borders of art, critical theory and practice.