James Elkins
News:
New book! What Heaven Looks Like. Passed the 300,000 word mark on my work in progress. Writing every day! Please use the contact form to schedule lectures, studio visits, or seminars. I'm using Academia.edu as a message board. If you download something of mine that's posted there, send me a note: I'm always glad to answer questions. See Lectures page for my travel schedule.
I have decided not to find a publisher for The Impending Single History of Art. (Too many years spent pursuing academic publishers.) It's the last of my art history books, and the one with the most information about global art history. I'm going to be posting it in its entirety on this site and on Academia. The chapters are on Google Drive, so they're live and always up to date. Please send comments & criticism here.
Latest uploads:
The book Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?; the book How to Use Your Eyes; and an essay on the complicity between torture and formal analysis. (There is also a website with reviews of contemporary piano music.)
Live Writing Projects:
I am experimenting with writing live on the internet. These texts update live, and you can contribute to them & be thanked when the book is published. (1) What is Interesting Writing in Art History?, (2) Writing with Images. Other live writing projects are finished: Visual Worlds, and The Impending Single History of Art. Thanks everyone for contributing!
On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art
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Religion has a "strange" place in art because work that subscribes to a major religion is not often accepted in the international art market.
Emil Nolde's Ruleless Color
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On the German Expressionist Emil Nolde, and his use of color, which was neither entirely unnatural nor abritrary.
What Does Peirce's Sign System Have to Say to Art History?
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An essay on the overuse, or misuse, of Charles Sanders Peirce's sign system in art history.
Farewell to Visual Studies
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A book on the state and history of visual culture studies around the world.
Beyond the Aesthetic and the Anti-Aesthetic
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A book on the impasse in art theory, between modernist aesthetics and postmodern politics.
What do Artists Know?
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A book on what artists are taught, and what artistic knowledge might be.
What is an Image?
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A comprehensive look at the history of theories about the nature of pictures and images.
Art and Globalization
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A comprehensive look at the spread of art history, theory, and criticism around the world.
