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Bernard Smith and Robert Hughes: A Critical Dialogue
Get PDFThis paper explores the origins and development of the public dialogue between Bernard Smith (1916-2011) and Robert Hughes (1938-2012). Smith and Hughes were giants of Australian art history of the twentieth century. Both, however, followed very different career paths: Smith’s readership was primarily academic and local, while Hughes’s audience was popular and international. And yet, despite their differences, a considerable amount of exchange existed between the two. After first locking horns in 1961, Smith and Hughes engaged in public debate intermittently for more than four decades. This dialogue, which transpired in the pages of published sources, especially their reviews and books, was characterised by acrimony and bitterness, as well as moments of conciliation and mutual respect. When contesting issues of common interest, both writers played to their natural strengths. Smith was dominant in the field of art history, while Hughes had the upper hand in art criticism. Each, however, encroached upon the other’s area of expertise: Smith wrote art criticism and Hughes wrote art history. Conflict was greatest in areas where their respective spheres of authority overlapped. Although tensions receded after 1964, when Hughes left Australia, they did not end. Key topics of debate included abstract art and modernism; provincialism and internationalism; and most importantly the vexed issue of Australian cultural isolation, which was defined in terms of Australian art and its relationship to European art history (or, as Smith termed it, ‘Renaissance tradition’)
Urban design for air quality
Get PDFUrban design influences where air pollution is produced, how it disperses through streets and neighbourhoods, and where, when, and how much people are exposed. This guide explains how good urban design can improve air quality using simple principles that benefit air quality and providing practical guidance and illustrations outlining how to implement them in urban areas
Evidence for the commission on race and ethnic disparities
Get PDFThis report summarizes the best-available evidence concerning race inequities in the English education system. We outline the scale of race inequity (especially in terms of achievement and exclusions from school) and explore the powerful, and often hidden, operation of institutional racism. Among the key issues we address are: • the complex and extensive role of racism as a factor operating across the system; • the dangers of ‘garbage can’ statistical modelling where statisticians mistakenly imagine that they can identify the separate operation of racism outside the intertwined effects of multiple other factors which are, themselves, shaped by patterns of race inequity. • the myth of the ‘worst’ performing White working class: we show how the misuse of limited data has perpetuated a view of White children as race victims and ignored stark race inequities that impact several minoritized groups, including students of Gypsy/Roma, Black Caribbean, Mixed Race (Black Caribbean/White) and Pakistani heritage. • the operation of racism in schools and classrooms, affecting minoritized children and limiting the chances of minoritized teachers and school leaders. • the need for positive antiracist action across the system, including the role of OFSTED (the schools inspectorate), initial teacher education, and the role of policymakers to finally take seriously the endemic nature of race inequity. The document was submitted to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in 2020. We were not contacted by the Commission to discuss our analysis or the evidence that we summarize. Their report, published in March 2021, signals the gulf between the reality of racism in education and official fantasies of White victimhood and a world where Britain is imagined to be a ‘beacon’ of multi-ethnic harmony
‘The art history and methodology of Millard Meiss and the question of his lukewarm reception in Italy’. Review of: Jennifer Cooke, Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation: From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte, New York and London: Routledge, 2021, 219 pp., 11 b. & w. illus., ISBN 978-0-367-13834-9
Get PDFThis book review focuses on Jennifer Cooke’s careful and incisive analysis of the different methodological approaches adopted by Millard Meiss in his art-historical writing. Her extensive research in Meiss’s personal letters allows for an intimate portrait of his scholarly interactions, including over thirty years of correspondence with Erwin Panofsky. The originality and importance of Cooke’s perspective on the reception of Meiss’s work in Italy is acknowledged, but it is also suggested that a fully balanced appraisal would have to include the profound influence Meiss had in North America
Rodolfo Lanciani’s revenge
Get PDFAmong the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana’s manuscripts are the notes that Rodolfo Lanciani (1845–1929) created while serving in the state archaeological service in Rome from 1871 to 1889. Given that during this time, many discoveries about ancient Roman monuments and topography were made and then destroyed, his on-site notes and sketches contain irreplaceable information. Because Lanciani felt his state employer had disrespected him, the archaeologist retained the notes in his personal possession for nearly all his life, refusing to cede them to the state archives. Instead, just before his death, he donated them to the Vatican library. This article explores the personal and historical circumstances that led Lanciani to this decision, one which has allowed scholars of ancient Rome’s built environment easy access to this invaluable material
‘Ludwig Hevesi and art in fin-de-siècle Vienna’. Review of: Ilona Sármány-Parsons, Bécs művészeti élete Ferenc József korában, ahogy Hevesi Lajos látta [The artistic life in Vienna in Franz Joseph’s time, as seen by Lajos Hevesi]. Budapest: Balassi Kiadó, 2019, 472 pp, 336 col. and b. & w. illus., bibliography, index, HUF 6,900 hdbk, ISBN 978-963-456-057-9.
Get PDFFollowing a biographical outline of Ludwig Hevesi’s career, the volume chronicles the exhibition life of Vienna from the 1870s to 1910 with the help of Hevesi’s art criticism feuilletons examined in strict chronological order. His critiques are contextualized in contemporary art journalism, confronting his views with those of his colleagues (e.g. Albert Ilg, Franz Adalbert Seligmann, Hermann Bahr, Franz Servaes or occasionally Karl Kraus). Apart from the reconstruction of the permanently changing individual styles of the painters, new light is cast on the social network of the artistic sphere, sponsorship and the art market from the 1890s onwards. The decisive role of Hevesi in assisting the breakthrough of the Viennese Secession and in shaping the Austrian Canon in painting is demonstrated with an abundance of quotations from contemporary sources
Supporting adaptation for transport resilience to climate change in low-income countries in Africa and South Asia
Get PDFWinckelmann’s influence on the Neoclassical reception of Greek vases
Get PDFWhile Johann Joachim’s Winckelmann influence on the Neoclassical taste for antiquities and its dissemination north of Italy is well known, it is rarely considered with regard to the study, acquisition, and use of ancient Greek vases. This article seeks to redress this lacuna, considering his enthusiasm for ancient Greek vases, known in his time as Campanian because of their findspots, visits to Neapolitan collections, and encouragement of others’ acquisition of these antiquities. It considers his introduction of these vases into his History of the Art of Antiquity (1764) and its revision, the value he and his predecessors put on such archaeological materials for the purposes of autopsy, his comparison of their drawings to those of Raphael, thus elevating the perceived and actual value of these otherwise humble antiquities. It also addresses Winckelmann’s precluded influence on the dissemination of the Neapolitan and Sicilian opinion, based on the evidence of inscriptions, that ‘Campanian’ and some other vases found in Italy were produced by ancient Greeks
‘Out of the shadows? Discovering Mary Warburg’. Review of: Hedinger, Bärbel; Diers, Michael (Eds.): Mary Warburg. Porträt einer Künstlerin. Leben, Werk, München: Hirmer Verlag 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7774-3614-2, 535 S., EUR 68.00.
Get PDFThis book review discusses the lavishly illustrated catalogue raisonné of the work of Mary Warburg, nee Hertz. Warburg is undoubtedly best known as the wife of art historian Aby Warburg. This catalogue aims to highlight, for the first time, Warburg’s independent achievements as an artist. The review highlights the merits of the book, in particular its in-depth contextualization of Warburg’s work within the social and cultural history of Hamburg. The review also reflects more broadly on the merits of such large-scale cataloguing endeavours today, especially when ‘minor figures’ such as Mary Warburg are concerned
The Hand on the Breast tr. Karl Johns
Get PDFOriginally published as ‘Haenden paa Brystet,’ Tilskueren: Maanedsskrift for Literatur, Samfundsspørgsmaal og almenfattelige videnskabelige skildringer, 4th year, 1887, June-July, pp. 455-471, August pp. 571-588, reprinted: Udvalgte skrifter af Julius Lange, udgivne af Georg Brandes og P. Købke, Andet bind, København: Det nordiske forlag, 1901, pp. 10-48
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