The Shapes of Art’s History – Mohile Parikh Center

Speaker: David Carrier
Discussant: Girish Shahane

November 15 and 16, 2004 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

1. Towards a Universal Art History: The Story of Painting and Sculpture in Europe and India

We often understand art historically. What are the shapes of art history in Europe and in India? Making extensive use of slides, I compare the structure of historical thinking about visual art in these often-interrelated visual cultures. To what extent are traditional European ways of thinking about art history universally valid? And in what ways do painting and sculpture in Indian have an independent development?

2. Why We Need a Universal Art History: Museums and Mutual Recognition

Art history matters because it is the basis for the art museum. Created by Europeans, this institution now found in all advanced nations provides essential multicultural understanding. All languages are intra-translatable. And today artists in all cultures share many concerns. On this small planet co-existence requires mutual recognition. How can the visual arts contribute to that end?

David Carrier, is a former professor of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University and currently teaches at Champney Family Professor in Cleveland. He has been Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and Class of 1932 Fellow in Philosophy, Princeton University; a Getty Scholar; and a Clark Fellow. He is the author of Principles of Art History Writing (Penn State University Press, 1991), The Aesthete in the City: The Philosophy and Practice of American Abstract Painting in the 1980s (Penn State University Press, 1994), High Art: Charles Baudelaire and the Origins of Modernist Painting (Penn State University Press, 1996), The Aesthetics of Comics (Penn State University Press, 2000). He has written about the history and philosophy of art writing, raising questions about the relativism of art writing in different eras by comparing texts written about the same artwork and analyzing changing styles of interpretation.