James Elkins

James Elkins

After 20 years of work, my experimental novel called Five Strange Languages is being published by Unnamed Press. It’s a large, complex project in five volumes. Out now: Book 3, Weak in Comparison to Dreams; Book 2, A Short Introduction to Anneliese. Book 1, Stories, like Illnesses will be out in fall 2026. Lots more information here (scroll down).

Pages with information about the novel update live.

Recent uploads of academic work: the books Pictures and Tears, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?, How to Use Your Eyes, and an essay on the complicity between torture and formal analysis. Another entire book free, on Academia: What is Interesting Writing in Art History? It’s on ways to write experimental art history.

I have put 75 short videos on art theory to Youtube. These are for art students. They cover media, politics, gender, the sublime, skill, formal analysis, craft, time, narrative, Eurocentrism, style, research, the body… lots of subjects.

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Category: Lectures

Theory in art history

This is a lecture on the history of theories and methods in art history, with some remarks on the current place of theories in the discipline.

Science and art

I have a number of texts and lectures on this topic. On this site, see especially: (1) The book Visual Worlds (2) The book Visual Practices Across the University (3) The essay “The Drunken Conversation of Science and Art“ This is an essay about the mutual misunderstandings between chaos theory, fractal dynamics, and painting in the 1990s. […]

Lectures

This interactive calendar lists public lectures and travels. If you click on the links you can get more information about venues and schedules of events. If you’d like to invite me to lecture or for a reading, please check availability, and then send an email (email addresses are on the vita). Readings Readings of fiction […]