Anachronic concepts, art historical containers and historiographical practices in contemporary art

Abstract

This paper examines the historiographical potential of contemporary art, asking how artworks have been envisaged to challenge, shape and undermine art historical models and how their contribution has been taken into view by theorists. Working through art historiographical models from Kubler to Panofsky and Benjamin, it reconsiders some aspects of the contested relationship between art and art history. It proposes a reconsideration of the ‘anachronic’ as a much discussed term in recent art theory, where, arguably, artistic and art historiographical interests intersect, and concludes with an examination of how art theory may do justice to the recent ‘historiographical turn’ in contemporary art beyond the conventional divide between ‘those who write and those who make art’.

Keywords

• anachronic
• historiographical turn
• Kubler
• Panofsky
• Benjamin