The Social Life of Artworks: Production-Circulation-Consumption-Afterlife

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What do works of art tell us about the particular socio-

historical contexts in which they were created? What

significance do these objects hold in society? How does

this significance change between various systems of

meaning in which artworks are consumed? What does the

work of art tell us about the people who owned the object?

By using as a point of departure provenance and the

understanding of material objects introduced by the texts of

Arjun Appadurai, the course explores the way works of art

function in social and cultural life from the moment and

conditions of their creation to their reception and various

forms of consumption.

What do works of art tell us about the particular socio-historical contexts in which they were created? What significance do these objects hold in society? How does this significance change between various systems of meaning in which artworks are consumed? What does the work of art tell us about the people who owned the object? The seminar explores the social context surrounding the making, circulation and use of works of art, focusing on the revealing and dynamic meaning of provenance. Provenance is often approached as a mere chain of ownership of an object, yet when set into a wider context, it can be revealing of functions, meanings, transformations and displacements of works of art. To fully understand material art objects, we must track their social lives and follow the trajectories that shape their meaning. To fully understand societies, we must study the artworks they produce and consume. By using as a point of departure provenance and the understanding of material objects introduced by the texts of Arjun Appadurai, the course explores the way works of art function in social and cultural life from the moment and conditions of their creation to their reception and various forms of consumption.

In a form of a journey through the history of art and visual culture from the late medieval Andachtsbilder to the contemporary marketing using reproductions of works of art, the course offers a chronological and thematic survey of the main issues defining the complex and fluid status and function of artworks. Through readings and discussions of objects, and source and theoretical texts the course will investigate such questions as, among others, works of art as market commodities, artworks as the objects of curatorial practice, and the role of provenance in perception of works of art.

Appadurai, Arjun, Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value, in Arjun Appadurai, ed. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Bismarck, von, Beatrice and Meyer-Kramher, Benjamin, eds. Curatorial Things. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019.

Halbwachs, Maurice, On Collective Memory, Chicago: Chiacago University Press, 1992

Finn, Margot, and Kate Smith, eds. East India Company at Home, 1757-1857. London: UCL Press, 2018.

Kopytoff, Igor, The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process, in Arjun Appadurai, ed. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 64-94.

Mauss, Marcel, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, London: Routledge, 1974.

Seegers, Ulli, (De)Konstruktion von Geschichte. Die Bedeutung der Provenienz für die Identität von Sammlungsobjekten, Großmann, G. Ulrich, ed. The Challenge of the Object, CIHA 2012 Congress Proceedings, Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2013, Part 2, pp. 646-654

The graduate is able to argue using the views of various researchers of art history and sociology, and has the ability to draw conclusions (K_U07).

The graduate is able to critically analyse texts within the field of art theory and new media, sociology and philosophy of culture (K_U05).

The graduate has basic knowledge of the connections of art history with other fields of science, such as history, philosophy, anthropology, study of culture, religion and literature (K_W16).

Presentation, written paper and active participation