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‘Authority and Authenticity in Art Writing’. Review of: Matthias Krüger, Léa Kuhn, Ulrich Pfisterer (Eds): Pro Domo. Kunstgeschichte in eigener Sache, Paderborn: Brill Fink 2021. ISBN: 978-3-8467-6506-7, 405 p., €73.83.
Full text linkThe review discusses the edited volume Pro Domo. Kunstgeschichte in eigener Sache. The volume aims to analyse systematically an understudied sub-genre of art writing: texts that were written by confidantes of the artists, thus suggesting a specific authority and authenticity as they claim to have ‘in-house’ knowledge of the master’s mind. The review situates the volume’s concept and approach within recent discussions on subjectivity in art writing
Rosalind Krauss. The streak of defiance
Full text linkThe article depicts the emancipation of American art historian Rosalind Krauss from Clement Greenberg. By tracing the refrain from Krauss’s sixth chapter of The Optical Unconscious a personal and professional history of mentorship evolving into intellectual dispute unfolds. Through a close reading of selected writings by Krauss, the formation and breakdown of the mentor-student relationship between Krauss and Greenberg, and her emergence as an independent and important voice in art history will be reconstructed. Not merely offering biographical information, the article places the refrain in its original context, chapter six of The Optical Unconscious, in order to differentiate between Krauss’ scholarly approach from Greenberg’s ‘pronouncements’. This lays the groundwork for understanding the circular feminist gesture with which Krauss ends the sixth chapter
Phantom Rome and wooden Atlantis: the Vienna School and the research on timber architecture in Central and Eastern Europe between the World Wars
Full text linkWooden architecture played a crucial role in Josef Strzygowski’s theory of civilisation. He presented it as the authentic Volkskunst, expressing the inventive spirit of the North, as opposed to the Machtkunst radiating from Rome and Constantinople. Strzygowski, who granted an equal place to Germanic and Slavic peoples in this ‘wooden Atlantis’, was a tactical ally for art historians in Central and Eastern Europe, who used timber architecture to construct an autonomous development of national art. At the opposite pole were scholars under the intellectual influence of ‘phantom Rome’ – the Riegl’s and Dvořák’s Vienna. They denied the original character of wooden buildings – perceived as a reflection of monumental architecture – and saw their opponents, whatever the source of their views, as adherents of the pro-Eastern-oriented part of the Viennese school. Today’s history of art history also seems to underestimate the external – mainly Russian – influence on Strzygowski’s concepts
Speed limits, air quality and health
Full text linkImproving air quality by lowering vehicle emissions is important for public health. Limiting vehicle speeds on the UK strategic road network can reduce individual vehicle exhaust emissions, however, there are implications for driver behaviour and traffic congestion patterns. This briefing note examines the current evidence for speed limit reduction to benefit air quality and health and provides recommendations for future priority research.
Recommended citation: Lacey, S., Zhong, J., Ghaffarpasand, O. and Bartington, S.E. (2023). ‘Speed limits, air quality and health’, TRANSITION Clean Air Network, Birmingham, U
The Time domain
Full text linkSlide designed by Jason Hilton, Rob MacKenzie, Andrew Plackett, Bruno Barcante Ladvocat Cintra, Sabrine Dhaouadi and Chantal Jackson for the Trees in time 2023 Annual Meeting of the Birmingham institute of Forest Research (BIFoR). Palaeontologial timescales incorporate the concepts of time-averaging developed by S.M. Kidwell and colleagues
Unreconcilable contradictions: the poetry of Aditya Prakash
Full text linkIs it possible that Anglophone Euro-American scholarship surrounding the Indian city, Chandigarh, focuses too heavily on certain figures associated with its design -such as Swiss-French architect and paragon of architectural modernism- Le Corbusier? With this question in mind, the following article focuses on the Indian architect Aditya Prakash- who worked alongside Le Corbusier during the design of Chandigarh-and the two poetry volumes he produced with Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand. This article contributes to an emerging body of research that suggests the need to de-emphasise Le Corbusier and to better understand the role of the Indian team in the design of Chandigarh. Through the analysis of hitherto under-researched poetry devoted to Chandigarh, this article offers a more nuanced understanding of Chandigarh, Aditya Prakash, and his relation to Le Corbusier
‘The ‘purification of the personality of Sanmicheli’. Review of: Il Michele Sanmicheli di Antonio Morassi: La tesi all’Università di Vienna e una monografia perduta (1916-1920) by Giulio Zavatta, Treviso: Zel, 2022, 230pp, 49 col. Illus. ISBN 9788887186307 €25.00.
Full text linkhe respected art historian Antonio Morassi, as a student under Max Dvořák in Vienna in 1912–16, wrote a thesis on the Renaissance architect Michele Sanmicheli (1487–1559), who was active in Verona and Venice. This, later, formed the basis of an article that was intended for publication but never surfaced, and the thesis and putative article form the subjects of a new book (Giulio Zavatta, Il Michele Sanmicheli di Antonio Morassi, Treviso: Zel, 2022). The book explores Morassi’s thesis in the context of his experience of the emerging discipline of art history in Vienna, while the thesis reveals itself to be particularly well conceived and informative, and also remarkably prescient of later ways of thinking about Sanmicheli and his architecture
The subject of scientific art history according to Riegl … and his followers
Full text linkAlois Riegl’s first and foremost task in his Historical Grammar of the Visual Arts, the foundational text of ‘art history as a scientific discipline’, was the definition of its proper subject. The preoccupation of the scientific art history was thus defined as dealing with elements, the developmental history of thereof, and the factors that determined that development. The elements in question are ‘form and surface’ (Form und Fläche), or, more precisely, the relation between them which is developed in the course of time and which constitutes different styles, all directed by specific worldviews, different for different time periods and peoples. In the definition of the subject of art history, precisely this conjunction of a style and its prescribing worldview (Weltanschauung) is most significant. It is also the starting point for Riegl’s fellow and following art historians, Heinrich Wölfflin, Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and Frederick Antal, among others. Riegl, therefore, should be credited with establishing the paradigm for the subsequent art-historical investigation
Palladio drawings in Britain: half a century of research
Full text linkThe Royal Institute of British Architects possesses one of the finest collections of architectural drawings and one of the jewels in its crown are over three hundred drawings by the celebrated Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Although cataloguing these drawings began in the 1960s as of late 2023 no printed catalogue has been published. This article examines the historiography of Palladio drawings in Britain: half a century of research, in order to set out what many of the issues regarding the project have been in the last fifty years
Procuring and deploying low-cost sensor networks: guidance and questions for low-cost and commercial AQ sensing networks
Full text linkLow-cost sensors provide a novel opportunity to monitor air quality at unprecedented spatial resolution. Devices are available at capital costs which are significantly lower than traditional monitoring methods. Whilst such devices allow for greater spatial resolution of air quality data there are a number of important things to consider during the procurement and deployment of low-cost sensor networks. This briefing document identifies some key considerations for using low-cost sensor networks based on experiences drawn from the NERC and EPSRC funded WM-Air & Birmingham Urban Observatory project
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