James Elkins
News:
Latest book: What Heaven Looks Like.
Next up: a massive textbook with Oxford Press, co-authored with Erna Fiorentini, called Visual Worlds. It should be out (after 7 years of work!) in 2020.
Also in 2020: my summary of the state of art writing around the world, called The Impending Single History of Art: North Atlantic Art History and its Alternatives. To be published by de Gruyter.
Passed the 300,000 word mark on my novel. Writing every day! It has illustrations; some are posted on Instagram.
Please use the contact form to schedule lectures, studio visits, or seminars. See Lectures page for my travel schedule.
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. Thanks everyone for contributing!
What Heaven Looks Like
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A book of commentary on a beautiful and mysterious manuscript in a library in Scotland.
Art History in Smaller Countries
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Two essays on the state of art history in Ireland, with reference to the general question of how art history is taught in smaller countries.
The End of the Theory of the Gaze
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An essay on the current state of the theory of the gaze, and a critical assessment of its recent development.
On The Unrepresentable in Pictures
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An essay on the limits of visual representation, with attention to recent positions taken by Rosalind Krauss and Georges Didi-Huberman.
How to Invite a Speaker
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Instructions and tips on inviting people to speak at your university.
Two Ways of Looking at Ceramics
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An essay about the reasons ceramics is marginal in art history, and how it can be central in some philosophy.
The Stone Art Theory Institutes
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- Hits: 13483
A series of five books on art theory, produced at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
Artists with PhDs
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A book about the PhD degree in studio art, as it is practiced around the world.
