Drawing Art History
Drawing Art History
Initiated by Prof. Jérémie Koering (University of Fribourg, and INHA France) and co-curated with Dr. Tamar Mayer (Tel Aviv University), this exhibition features original research on drawings made by art historians, from the academic recognition of the discipline in the 19th century, to this very day. Prof. Koering has discovered that some of the most recognized art historians in the world have used drawing to study art and to advance their academic research. Dr. Mayer has recently discovered that this phenomenon also exists in the work of Moshe Barasch, the founder of the discipline of art history in Israel.
The exhibition shows that drawing has crucial functions in the production of art historical knowledge. Jakob Burckhardt, Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Aby Warburg, Meyer Schapiro, Leo Steinberg, Clement Greenberg, Hubert Damisch, and others – all turned to the graphic instrument to observe, understand, and explain painting, architecture, or sculpture. This practice is still used today, as can be seen in the works of Dario Gamboni featured in the exhibition. The exhibition also displays for the first time research drawings by Israeli art historian, Moshe Barasch.
Drawing Art History sets out to evaluate the role that drawing plays in the emergence, production, and transmission of a specific type of knowledge about art objects. While this practice received little attention, countless drawings by art historians are kept in art institutes, universities, foundations, or private collections. Regardless of these scholars’ methodology – connoisseurship, formalism, iconology, or semiotics – drawing proves to be an incomparably effective instrument for perceiving, recording, archiving, thinking, analyzing, experimenting, and conceptualizing works of art. In this exhibition, the history of art is redrawn through images, ones that respond to the very challenges posed to the eye and the mind by artists.
Alongside these historical drawings, the exhibition includes artworks by two contemporary artists, Nicolas Aiello (France) and Hila Laviv (Israel), responding to this innovative research.
Curators: Prof. Jérémie Koering, Dr. Tamar Mayer
Assistant Curator: Darya Aloufy
