Artium Quaestiones

Edgar Wind i oblicza sztuki nowoczesnej. Na marginesie książki Bena Thomasa

Ryszard Kasperowicz — 2022-12-30

The issue of the relationship between art history, its analytical procedures and critical judgements, and the attitude of art historians to modern art has long been a problem discussed when we refer, for example, to scholars such as Riegl, Wölfflin, and, for obvious reasons, Justi or Sedlmayr. Although many art historians reacted very negatively to their own contemporary artistic phenomena, of which Justi’s aversion to Impressionism was perhaps the most notable example, the issue is by no means clear-cut. It is important to note here that even critical remarks made against distinct phenomena in modern art need not be tantamount to a condemnation of “modernity”. Edgar Wind, an outstanding methodologist of science and an excellent art historian of the 18th century and the Renaissance, seems to be a particularly interesting example here. Criticising various manifestations of the cult of “pure form”, and associating them with the influence of Romantic “autonomy” of art creation and certain concepts from the sphere of art history as a discipline, Wind was at the same time a very insightful observer of contemporary art, valuing selected artists highly. This issue was presented in detail by Ben Thomas in his recently published book on Wind’s attitude to contemporary art, drawing on Wind’s previously unpublished and unknown materials. The present text is an attempt at a broader, problematising discussion of this issue on the basis of reading Ben Thomas’s book, the publication of which should be regarded as an important event in the field of research into the history of art, history of art history, and the influence exerted by art history as a practice and as a discipline on the problem of esteeming modern art.

Feminism in the Time of Transformation. Piotr Piotrowski, Zofia Kulik and the Development of Feminist Art History in Poland

Agata Jakubowska — 2022-12-30

This article is an analysis of one area of Piotr Piotrowski’s (1952–2015) activity in the 1990s – his writings on the art of Zofia Kulik and, more specifically, on its feminist dimension. I argue that although Piotrowski was never interested in women’s art in particular, not only did he practise feminist criticism during this period, but he was also a catalyst for the development of a specific form of feminist reflection that was then new in Polish art history. It focused on power relations and did not accept distancing oneself from social and political problems. I analyse it from the perspective of contemporary revisions of the development of feminist discourse after 1989 in Eastern Europe, which critically examines its embeddedness in Western ideas.

Double Index. The Self-Shadow in American Photography of the Second Half of the 20th Century

Julia Stachura — 2022-12-30

The article focuses on the notion of the image of self-shadow in American photography in the second half of the twentieth century, understood as a shadow silhouette of the creator captured in a photograph. The two main problems that concern the author’s research are the lack of current, theoretical study on the problem of shadow in the history of photography from the perspective of art history (V. Stoichita, R. Casati, P. Cavanagh, H. Kanaan) and the lack of the definition of the phenomenon of self-shadow and its possible types in self-portraiture. The author’s proposition of a definition of self-shadow is based on selected photographs by four artists whose works touch upon the problem of shadow in the context of relations between the “self” and the “other” (Lee Friedlander), race and subjective invisibility (Shawn W. Walker), mask and the other-self (Andy Warhol), and the intimate recording of identity (Nan Goldin). In her analyses, the author discusses the problem of the hybrid ontology of the shadow, which is both visible and visual. In this understanding, the shadow not only refers to a physical body, present “here and now” but more importantly evokes a sense of presence, even when the artist’s body is absent in the picture. The double index refers to the image leaving its mark both in reality and on light-sensitive paper. The rudimentary, vitalistic relation linking the human body with its shadow is only a starting point for analyses of the complexity of its status and symbolism. The concepts framing Andy Warhol’s Polaroid are twinning, the mask, and the Jungian theory of the shadow archetype. To discuss the self-portrait of Shawn W. Walker, the author applies the literary-philosophical concept of invisibility based on writings from Black existentialists (W.E.B. Du Bois, F. Fanon, R. Ellison). The analyses of Lee Friedlander’s photograph have been based on the psychological distinction between the figures of the “self” and the “other”. The closing concepts that frame Nan Goldin’s self-portrait are the haptic thinking subject (M. Smolińska) and the notion of a diary. The critical apparatus of the study is supplemented by contemporary analyses of the myth of Narcissus, the mythical origins of the self-portrait, and the notion of the index (after R. Krauss, M. Michałowska, M.A. Doane).

Od „bibliotek fotograficznych” do "fototek". O epistemologicznym potencjale historyczno-artystycznych kolekcji fotografii

Constanza Caraffa — 2022-12-30

This text is a translation from English into Polish of a fundamental text for research into reproductions of works of art, written by Constanza Caraffa, the leading theorist of the field. It is an introductory chapter of her important volume Photo Archives and the Photographic Memory of Art History (2011), in which she elucidates the meaning of a photo-archive as a site of research into photographs of works of art as individual, material objects. Using examples and her work experience in the Photothek at the Kunsthistorische Institut in Florence, she presents the complexity and abundance of information that photographic reproductions of works of art can carry, over and above the traditional understanding of a photograph as a document transparent onto the object it represents.

Migracja aury lub jak badać oryginał poprzez jego faksymile

Bruno Latour (1947-2022) — 2022-12-30

The text offers enlightening reflections on issues concerning reproductions of works of art, the status of an original and a copy, the problem of conservation, and the role of digital photography. Latour and Lowe raise the contentious issue of how good and bad reproductions can affect the original, participate in what they call “the migration of the aura”. This is primarily a case study of a production, presentation, reception and the meaning of a facsimile of a Veronese work, Nozze di Cana at its original location, San Giorgio in Venice. The second part of the text (the appendix) is a meticulous, technical description of the stages of production of the picture by Lowe.

Noty biograficzne

Dorota Łuczak — 2022-12-30

Inanimate Nature. Pondering the Reproductive Daguerretype

Geoffrey Batchen — 2022-12-30

Little has been published about reproductive daguerreotypes, a genre of photographic still life in which another picture – a drawing, an engraving, a lithograph, a painting, a printed text – is the sole referent. However, as this essay demonstrates, a study of reproductive daguerreotypes is a study of daguerreotypy itself – of its capacities and limitations as a medium, of its major figures and its diversity of commercial applications, of its many possible meanings, functions and related viewing practices. But it is also an opportunity to reflect on the place of such daguerreotypes in the larger story concerning the photographic reproduction of artworks. Reproductive daguerreotypes are distinctive in that they copy an artwork exactly but unfaithfully: they often laterally reverse the image even while rendering it small, monochrome, precious, shiny, evanescent, mobile. Most striking is the way such daguerreotypes partake of the logic of reproducibility without necessarily participating in the processes of mass production normally associated with it: as unique copies, they offer replication without multiplicity. In so doing, they complicate the orthodox account of this process promulgated by Walter Benjamin in the 1930s and repeated so many times since.

Transfiguration: Southworth and Hawes, Reproduced Images and Body

Ellen Handy — 2022-12-30

The Harrison Horblit Collection at the Harvard University’s Houghton Library contains a remarkable daguerreotype plate by the Boston firm Southworth & Hawes. It reproduces an engraving after Raphael’s Transfiguration. Whereas reproductive printmaking normally seeks to produce multiples of a unique original, daguerreotype reproductions open a space of ambiguity between the categories of original and reproduction since daguerreotypes are unique objects. Much is lost in this translation, but what is gained? If reproduction of paintings normally renders the singular multiple, what happens when a painting is reproduced as a unique image? Why was this daguerreotype created? Southworth & Hawes specialized in portraits of celebrities and considered themselves artists. Why then did they make a daguerreotype of an engraving of a painting? And why this painting?Their image of an image of an image is at once simply duplicative and a meditation on photography itself – an expanded conception of photography that figures it as spiritual and conceptual practice, as is suggested in other conflations of image reproduction and transfiguration within Southworth & Hawes’ oeuvre as well. The logic of the Southworth & Hawes’ Transfiguration becomes less a conundrum when considered in relation to two of their other images, one of the branded hand of abolitionist Jonathan Walker, the other a self-portrait representing Southworth’s torso as a classical sculpture. Translation, transfiguration, body, soul and image are closely imbricated in all three of these daguerreotypes, each produced during the height of New England Transcendentalism. While Raphael’s Transfiguration epitomizes the intersection of the human and a divine being as Scriptural drama, The Branded Hand and Southworth as a Classical Bust allude to the spiritual realm through representation of the soul’s transcendence of the suffering body rather than direct reference to scripture. The Branded Hand detaches subject from the context of the body as a whole; Walker’s wound appears in the image as the silvery trace of the price paid for his abolitionist conviction. The portrait of Southworth separates an individual man’s identity from the more allegorical presence, while presenting suggestions of sorrow as emblems of spiritual elevation. But beyond this, the transmedial daguerreotype of the print of the Raphael announces itself as visual metonymy; the transfiguration of Christ in the painting also conveys the transfigurative power of the photographic medium itself.

Enlarged Details and Close-up Views: Art Reproduction in 1930s Czechoslovakia

Hana Buddeus — 2022-12-30

Each photograph captures an artwork within a particular frame of space and time, providing a perspective that is contingent and dependent on the era the photograph was made in (Bergstein 1992). Moreover, every photograph is always embedded in specific material conditions and has its own social life (Edwards–Hart 2004). The aim of this article is to show the particularity of reproductions of artworks in 1930s Czechoslovakia and the motivations and discussions behind the extensive use of detail. I argue that the pronounced interest in close-up views is a result of a series of circumstances specific to the period. There is an important pre-condition in the development in the field of art photography and graphic design that took place in the late 1920s, bringing about an interest in sharp and faithful images and full bleed prints, as well as a recognition of the social impact of the medium. As a result, photographers, artists, art historians, and graphic designers living in Czechoslovakia also began to rethink the use of photography in the art field. This was manifested in period publications such as the well-known Fotografie vidí povrch (Photography Sees the Surface), published in 1935. In terms of art reproductions, it shows the importance of close-up views for providing an insight into individual artistic approaches and into the history of the respective artwork. The same year saw the publication of the 31st volume of the art magazine Volné směry, which enables us to follow several micro-histories that can also be applied more generally to the period discussions. As illustrated by a text by Bohuslav Slánský and the reproduced photographs of medieval panel portraits from Karlštejn Castle attributed to Master Theodoric, one of the purposes behind the commissions of enlarged photographic details of artworks were planned restorations. Moreover, examples from the photographic campaigns led by the company of Jan Štenc, the State Photo-Measurement Institute, or the project by Karel Šourek, Alexandr Paul, and František Illek (Documenta Bohemia Artis Phototypica) show that detail is generally used for showing the structure and texture of the work, for zooming in on otherwise distant works, or for the purpose of comparison. According to Volné směry editor-in-chief Emil Filla and his manifesto article “Práce oka”, the new method of working with reproductions and the frequent use of photographic detail precipitated a change in the observational habits of the audience. This intention was materialised through his long-term collaboration with the photographer Josef Sudek, who helped him show the artworks in a new light. It is evident that by the mid-1930s, the synergic work of individuals from different fields brought the use of detail in art-related publications to an unprecedented level.

Rzeźbione światłem miast dłutem. Krakowskie retabulum ołtarza Zaśnięcia Najświętszej Marii Panny w obiektywie Stanisława Kolowcy

Weronika Kobylińska — 2022-12-30

On two occasions (around 1932–1933 and after the war, between 1946 and 1950), Stanisław Kolowca (1904–1968) undertook the task of creating the photographic documentation of the reredos of the altar of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków (Poland). The stature of Wit Stwosz’s work – widely recognized as one of the key late Gothic masterpieces in Europe – could be the only factor legitimizing the status of Kolowca’s photographs. Nevertheless, the photographs seem to deserve a thorough analysis for other reasons as well. It should be underlined that in his project Kolowca did not focus only on the most obvious shots illustrating the altarpiece. In addition to long shots and full shots showing the characteristic iconographic motifs and portrait-type close-ups, reflecting the mastery of key figures (such as Virgin Mary or John the Baptist), the photographer also created completely unexpected compositions that go beyond the codified frames of documentary photography. Consequently, his works fundamentally problematize the concept of photographic reproduction of an art piece.

Zadanie fotografa. Problemtyka Reprodukcji dzieła sztuki na przykładzie dwóch książek fotograficz`nych Eustachego Kossakowskiego August Zamoyski oraz Lumières de Chartres

Adam Mazur — 2022-12-30

Using the example of two books by Eustachy Kossakowski (1925–2001) – August Zamoyski (1974) and Lumières de Chartres (1989) – the text addresses the issue of reproducing works of art in the form of a photo album (photobook). The work of the photographer who makes reproductions of works of art is compared to the task of the translator, a reference to Walter Benjamin’s essay. The text is divided into two parts corresponding to albums. A detailed analysis allows us to see the differences between the books, as well as the change in Kossakowski’s approach to reproduced works of art. The first album consists of black-and-white photographs depicting in an original way the works of the prominent Polish sculptor August Zamoyski. Kossakowski recontextualizes individual objects photographed in the artist’s French studio. In the second book, the photographer publishes color photographs of the titular “lights of Chartres.” Taken inside the early Gothic cathedral, the photos move away from the documentation of the object, and the weight shifts to a near-abstract record of the artist’s emotions. Published alongside Anne Prache’s scholarly study, engravings and documentation of the edifice, Kossakovsky’s photographs constitute an original monograph of Chartres Cathedral. In the author’s view, Kossakowski’s photobooks go beyond the framework of a typical album of reproductions offering the mass public a substitute for contact with art. The photographer creates autonomous objects by translating the reproduced work of art into an object that fosters an aesthetic experience and becomes art itself. Kossakowski’s approach is juxtaposed with Mieke Bal’s reading of Benjamin’s text. While the album dedicated to Zamoyski seems to be based on unconventional documentation, in which the procedure of recontextualizing objects plays a dominant role, the Chartres monograph approaches the “ecstatic aesthetic” proposed by Bal. Lumières de Chartres provides a different perspective on the reproduction album, which, in addition to basic information and illustrative reproductions, is a carrier of emotions, a record of experiences and a medium of art. An analysis of the author’s publications, which include reproductions of August Zamoyski’s sculptures and documentation of Chartres Cathedral, emphasizes their autonomous and artistic character. Kossakowski observes and interprets Zamoyski’s work by looking at it from a distance. But in Chartres, we observe how he lets himself be captivated by the cathedral. The transformation of the cathedral into sensual light completely absorbs its subject - the metamorphosis of Zamoyski’s sculptures does not. Photography is not art, nor is it reproduction. It is only in the process of interpreting an object by looking at it with a camera to the eye that the artistry of translating a work of art into the format of a photograph and, further, a photo album is revealed. The photobook as a work of art is the true task of the photographer.

Spuścizna niemiecka, kierunek Polski. Zbiór reprodukcji Seminarium Historii Sztuki na Uniwersytecie Poznańskim (1919–1939)

Kamila Kłudkiewicz — 2022-12-30

In 1919, the authorities of the newly established University of Poznan took over the buildings and movable property of the German Royal Academy, which had functioned in Poznan between 1903 and 1918. The Seminar of Art History, which was organised at the time, acquired, among other things, a collection of 4,000 slides and 4,000 reproductions which had been used in teaching art history at the German university. Thanks to the first Polish professor of art history, Szczęsny Dettloff, the collection began to grow. Dettloff, one of the fathers of academic art history in Poland, understood perfectly the need to expand the university’s research workshop: the library and the reproduction collection. He built a Polish photo library at the University of Poznan on the basis of the existing German reproduction collection and a set of diapositives acquired in 1919 from the Museum of Wielkopolska (the collection after the German Kaiser Friedrich Museum). The article describes the reproduction collection in the inter-war period, indicates its state of preservation and analyses the role of the local collection in the academic teaching of art history (in the context of the programme of studies, but also of trips for students).

Konstruowanie atlasu. Surrealizm - fotografia - Reprodukcja

Tomasz Szerszeń — 2022-12-30

“The history of art is [...] the history of what is photographable,” wrote André Malraux. Surrealism and related interwar visual phenomena add an interesting context to this observation. If we look at surrealism through the prism of the numerous magazines that accompanied it, we can see the special role of photographic reproduction. It seems that it plays a slightly different role there than in other practices of the interwar avant-garde: it tends to be a visual form of thinking, establishing photography as a crucial medium. The case of the journal “Documents” (1929–1930), existing on the fringe of surrealism and anthropology, seems particularly interesting. It can be seen as a kind of atlas of visual forms, in which the problem of reproductions of artworks and artefacts from different cultures was constantly problematised. The cannibalisation of various types of iconography was related not only to discussions on cultural visual appropriation, or the criticism of various conventions of seeing and making images, but also to a broader project whose aim was the decolonisation of seeing. It assumed a re-examination of European (art) history – in a radical, non-hierarchical and non-encyclopaedic way. The aim of the editors of the journal was to move away from the metaphysical and ocularcentric paradigm in favour of a more horizontal and relational (and in effect anthropological) positioning of a work of art. The question of reproduction is problematised in “Documents” in terms of a discussion on the aura of works and objects from other cultures: displaced and uprooted from their cultural context. The subversive photographic practices of the surrealists related to the status of copies and reproductions are also contextualised here, as are two monumental projects based on reproduction: Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas (1924–1929) and Malraux’s Museum of the Imagination (1947–1951), or a “photographic album of universal culture”, but which were created in the face of similar problems to “Documents” (the visual form of knowledge; the “universal” in the face of colonialism; the relationship between artwork and reproduction). All three projects were a kind of response to the globalisation of images and the crisis of cultural memory. Here the use of the atlas form and photographic reproduction becomes an attempt to establish a new epistemic paradigm.

Spis treści

Dorota Łuczak — 2022-12-30

SPIS TREŚCI

Nota redakcyjna

Dorota Łuczak — 2022-12-30

NOTA REDAKCYJNA