James Elkins

An essay on the concept of the sublime in art, rehearsing the history of the postmodern sublime, and calling for a moratorium on its use.

A brief essay on the sometimes overlooked continuum between the most original work and the most literal copy.

An essay on the relation between Photoshop and the history of art, and a proposal for a book to be called The History of Photoshop.

The idea of close reading is fundamental in art history and literary criticism. This essay is about the coherence of the idea in art history and in some archaeology.

Art Criticism (an encyclopedia entry, written for the Grove Dictionary of Art, and interestingly censored by them). It's a survey of major theories of art criticism.

Is "art history" the name of a discipline, or an area of interest, that is practiced throughout the world? Or is it a Western interest, currently spreading along with capitalism?

There is no such thing as "outsider art" because naive and untrained art has been a traditional accompaniment of modernism since its inception.

A brief essay on E.H. Gombrich's relation to the discipline of art history, with reasons why he would not have considered himself an art historian.