Exploring Art as Knowledge

Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University Collaborate on Series

The Institute for Advanced Study has partnered with Princeton University on an innovative lecture series for the 2008-09 academic year entitled Art as Knowledge.  Organized by Yve-Alain Bois, Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute, and Christopher Heuer, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at the university, the series will offer seven lectures, beginning on October 14 and running through April 7, 2009, which will be held at either the Institute or at the university. 

Professors Bois and Heuer collaborated on identifying and inviting leading scholars from a broad range of art historical disciplines to present the lectures.  The series, featuring talks by seven noted art historians from around the country, will seek to reflect on a number of questions in order to examine the myriad ways in which art has historically affirmed (or subverted) what can be perceived, discovered or learned. The lectures will address how art develops and conveys knowledge, and whether questions raised by art works are context-specific or have a broader epistemological value.

"Art traditionally demonstrates a commitment to alternative realms of thinking," stated Christopher Heuer of the university. "But what do art objects ‘know' uniquely?  And to what extent can this knowledge be recovered?"

The series will begin in McCormick Hall at Princeton University with the talk Sculpture and Urbanism in Grand Ducal Florence, delivered by Michael Cole, Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, October 14 at 5:00 p.m.

Subsequent to Michael Cole's lecture, the series will continue with the following talks, each of which will all take place at 5:00 p.m., unless otherwise noted:

Shitao (1642-1707) and the Traditional Chinese Conception of Ruins
Wu Hung

Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago

Tuesday, December 2

- McCosh 10, Princeton University, at

8:00 p.m.
Cosponsored by the Tang Center for East Asian Art

Anri Sala's "Long Sorrow"
Michael Fried
Professor, The Humanities Center, Johns Hopkins University
Thursday, December 4 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study

The Unspeakable Subject of Hieronymus Bosch
Joseph Leo Koerner
Victor S. Thomas Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study

After Laughter: Raymond Pettibon and Pop Art
Benjamin Buchloh
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
The respondent for the lecture will be Hal Foster, Chair of the Deprtment of Art and Archeology at Princeton University.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - McCormick Hall, Princeton University 

Sovereign Power, Death and Monuments
Zainab Bahrani
Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study

Boucher’s Promiscuity
Ewa Lajer-Burcharth

Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

- McCormick Hall, Princeton University 

All talks are free and open to the public. No reservations or tickets are required, but seating is on a first come, first served basis.  For more information, visit www.ias.edu or call 609-734-8175.

This series marks the second time that the Institute and the university have collaborated in bringing together art historians to address a central theme in the field.  Bois and Hal Foster, Chair of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton, joined to create The Sensuous in Art lecture series in the 2006-07 academic year. That effort led to the exploration of the many different effects that works of art have on the human senses, and each lecture featured a formal response by a scholar associated with either the Institute or the university.

Tradition of Art History at the Institute

The history of art has been represented at the Institute since 1935, when Erwin Panofsky (Professor, 1935-62, Emeritus, 1962-68) was appointed to the Faculty of what was then the School of Humanistic Studies.  Formalized as the School of Historical Studies in 1949, the School has been home to some of the world's leading art historians, including Millard Meiss (Professor, 1958-74, Emeritus, 1974-75), Irving Lavin (Professor, 1974-2001, Emeritus, 2001-present) and Kirk Varnedoe (Professor, 2002-03).  A specialist in 20^th-century European and American art, Yve-Alain Bois joined the Faculty in 2005. 

Publications by Faculty in the School of Historical Studies have become key references for generations of art historians, and each year the School hosts scholars from around the world, who come to pursue their studies in a range of areas within art history.  These scholars work alongside fellow Members specializing in the history of Western, Near Eastern, and Far Eastern civilizations, with emphasis on Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, and East Asia. Research has also been conducted on the history of other regions, including central Asia, India, and Africa.  Such interaction promotes interdisciplinary research and cross-fertilization of ideas, thereby encouraging the creation of new historical enterprises.