Second Essay Brief – Art History, Theory, and Materiality

Assessment Details:

• Assignment: Second Essay

• Word Count: 2000–2500 words

• Weight: 70% of total course grade

• Due Date: Noon, 31st March 2025

Submission Requirement – Self-Evaluation

All coursework must include a self-evaluation. This includes a proposed grade

based on the marking criteria in your student handbook. Add the self-evaluation after
the word count using this format:

Proposed grade after self-evaluation: First class / Second class upper division /
Second class lower division / Third class.
(Optional short sentence explaining why you are proposing this grade.)

Essay Prompts

(These are not strict questions but prompts to inspire your essay. Your two essays
must be based on different prompts.)

You must apply selected theories discussed in class and/or from core readings. We
also expect engagement with additional assigned readings.

1. Re ect on one or more operative concepts (e.g., Connoisseurship) through

an artwork.
Explain how applying such a concept reshapes our view of the artwork.

◦ If using more than one operative concept: explain why you selected
them and how they relate.

◦ If using only one: consider an interdisciplinary perspective or different

approaches to that single concept.
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2. Analyse an artwork (painting, sculpture, ethnographic object, design,
multimedia, performance, etc.).
Based on this case, discuss uniqueness, authenticity, and originality.

◦ How does the artwork change over time?

◦ How does its materiality unfold?

◦ What are the material and immaterial aspects of the work?

3. Analyse an artwork through the concepts of autographic and allographic.

◦ How does it relate to single/multiple art or one-stage/two-stage art?

◦ Choose a piece that challenges these traditional categories.

4. Discuss the changing role of the artist in society.

◦ How has the idea of the artist evolved historically?

◦ How has this affected the idea of the artwork?

◦ Base your argument on individual research, readings, and course

material.

5. Explore how science and technology have transformed our view of

artworks.

◦ Why did this happen? How does it relate to the Material Turn?

◦ Does this shift deepen your connection with the work—or hinder an
authentic experience?

◦ Discuss pros and cons of this transformation.

6. Critically analyse your last museum or exhibition visit.

◦ How did the narratives relate to operative concepts like Materiality,

Science & Technique, and Conservation?

◦ You can focus on just one of these concepts.

◦ How did these narratives change your experience as a visitor?

◦ Compare your perspective as a trained observer to that of a general

audience.
 7. Write as a conservator.

◦ Choose an artwork and pretend you're the professional responsible for

preserving it.

◦ What choices do you make, and why?

◦ How do these choices relate to the work’s production context, history,

and traditional/non-traditional ideas of conservation?

8. Choose an example of art remaking.

◦ What makes it a “remake”?

◦ How does it relate to forgery and replica?

◦ What challenges does it raise?

◦ How does it affect our knowledge, perception, and engagement with

both the original and the remade object?

9. Write on a topic of your choice.

◦ Must incorporate class material and/or assigned readings.

◦ Must be pre-approved via email or discussed with your tutor at least 10

days in advance.

Thematic Overview by Week & Readings

Session Focus:

The artist and the persistent clichés around artistic identity: hero, genius, outsider.
Exploring the social dimensions of the artist and the emergence of such myths.

Week 1: The Image of the Artist

Required Readings:

• Kris, Ernst & Kurz, Otto. Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist
(1979/1934)

◦ Intro, pp. 1–12

 ◦ pp. 38–60

Additional Readings:

• Nochlin, Linda. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, in Women,
Art and Power, pp. 147–158

• Soussloff, Catherine. The Absolute Artist, Ch. "The Artist in the Text", pp. 138–
193

Week 2: Methodology & Ontology of the Artwork

• Concepts: Originality, Uniqueness, Autographicity, Allographicity

• Focus on the relationship between artwork and matter.

Required Readings:

• Genette, Gérard. The Work of Art, pp. 1–55

• Goodman, Nelson. Languages of Art, “Art and Authenticity”, pp. 99–123

• Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, pp.
226–243 (Routledge)

Additional Reading:

• Tate Article on Time-Based Media Conservation

Week 3: Connoisseurship

Required Readings:

• Gibson-Wood, C. Studies in the History of Connoisseurship, Ch. 1, 2, 7, 11, 12

• Berenson, Bernard. Rudiments of Connoisseurship

• Gombrich, E.H. The Rhetoric of Attribution

Additional Reading:

• Friedlander, Max J. On Art and Connoisseurship (1946)

Week 4: De ning Materiality

Core Readings:

• Miller, Peter. History and its Objects, Intro & Ch. 1 (pp. 1–40)

• Elkins, James. On Some Limits of Materiality in Art History

• Ingold, Tim. Materials Against Materiality

• Lange-Berndt, Petra. How to Be Complicit with Materials (First 4 pages)

Additional Readings:

• Dudley, Sandra. Materiality Matters

• Miller, Daniel. Materiality: An Introduction

Week 5: Science, Technology & Technical Art History

Required Readings:

• Hermens, Erma. Technical Art History (2024)

• Ainsworth, Marian. From Connoisseurship to Technical Art History

• Documentaries: Who Is Jackson Pollock?, The Lost Rubens

Additional Readings:

• Hermens, Erma (2012). The Synergy of Art, Conservation & Science

• Glabally et al. Art Conservation & Fraud

• Podany & Scott. Looking Through Both Sides of the Lens

• National Gallery Technical Bulletins

Week 6: Beyond Attribution

Required Readings:

• Ghigo et al. (2023). John Ruskin’s Teaching Collection

• Cesaratto et al. (2018). Synthetic Dyestuffs in Japan

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 • Taylor Nicioli (CNN). Rare Compound in the Mona Lisa

Additional Readings:

• Casadio et al. Execute, Evaluate, Repeat (Art Institute of Chicago)

• Gonzalez et al. Mona Lisa’s Ground Layer

• Ghigo, T. The Great Bookcase

• Seymour et al. Ancient Egyptian Blue

Week 7: Guest Lecture – Gabriela Siracusano

Lecture Title: Materiality and Colonisation

Explores Spanish-American colonial art, matter as a document, and “archaeology
of making”.

Week 8: Art Remaking

Core Readings:

• Gagliardi, Latour, Memelsdor. Coping with the Past

• Carlyle & Witlox. Historically Accurate Reconstructions

• Takahatake & Bober. Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy

Additional Readings:

• Ghigo & Hirschle. 19th Century Watercolour Replicas

• Leong, Elaine. Recipes and Everyday Knowledge

• Factum Arte’s Caravaggio Rematerialisation

• Van Wegen, D.H. Between Fetish and Score

Week 9: Conservation Theories & Ethics

Required Readings:

• Ashley-Smith, Jonathan. The Ethics of Doing Nothing

 • Hölling, Hanna. The Technique of Conservation

• Dillon et al. Collections Demography

Additional Readings:

• Eastop, Dinah. Cultural Dynamics of Conservation

• Depocas, Ippolito & Jones. Variable Media

• Castriota, Brian. Artwork Identity and Documentation

• Krmpotich & Peers. Haida Material Heritage

• Strlič et al. Damage Function for Historic Paper

• Albano, Albert. Art in Transition

• Mattern, Shannon. Maintenance and Care

• Carrier, David. Art and Its Preservation

• Saito, Yuriko. Why Restore Works of Art?

Week 10: Culture, Institutions, and Heritage

Core Readings:

• Dykstra, Steven. Artist’s Intentions & the Intentional Fallacy

• Kassim, Sumaya. The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised

• Hassan, F.A. The Aswan High Dam and the Rescue of Nubia

Additional Readings:

• Mignolo, Walter. Museums in the Colonial Horizon

• Harrison, Rodney. Prehistories of World Heritage

• UNESCO World Heritage Convention

Week 11: Supplementary Readings

• Bery, Bryony. Richard Hamilton’s Reframing of Duchamp

 • Bishop, Claire. Art of Political Timing

• Blackson, Robert. Reenactment in Contemporary Art

• Clavir, Miriam. Preserving Conceptual Integrity

• Cua Lim, Bliss. Translating Time

• Dominguez Rubio, Fernando. Still Life

• Dudley, Sandra. Museum Materialities

• Gosden & Marshall. Cultural Biography of Objects

• Heath eld, Adrian. Perform, Repeat, Record

• Hölling, Hanna. Time and Conservation

• Hölling, Hanna. Zen for Film

• Lerner, Ben. The Custodians (Whitney)

• Marçal, Hélia. Conservation in an Era of Participation

• Nagel & Wood. Anachronic Renaissance

• Pierce, Sarah. Scenes of the Myth

• Schneider, Rebecca. Intra-inanimation

• Smith & Akagawa. Intangible Heritage

• Van Wegen, D.H. Between Fetish and Score

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