I just mean a view of art history that doesn't look beyond the post Renaissance West. There is no way in my view that we can seriously entertain an explanation of the nature of art which limits itself to such a (relatively) brief period and one culture. Our experience of art is just not like that any longer and hasn't been for several decades. Do we still think art began with Giotto - or maybe Raphael? - the way art histories once implied - (God! some still almost do!!.)
Now, one might say - Saul might eg - that Benjamin was only talking about the post-Renaissance West. But he clearly wasn't. His whole theory rests on ideas about what art was in 'religous' periods etc. He isn't clear about which periods those were but presumably he means prior to the Renaissance (Gothic? Byzantine? Egypt? etc?). He is, in other words, attempting to give a *general* theory of art - but as I've tried to point out to Saul, Benjamin's thinking (about lines of ownership, authenticity, etc etc) simply doesn't apply in lots and lots of the cultures from which obejcts we now call art come (where even the very notion of art itslef was absent). It is anachronistic thinking - thinking through culture-tinted spectacles. If Benjamin had been writing in the 1830s and not the 1930s all this would be understandable. But he wasn't. And it is just plain silly for us now to take his historical ideas seriously when we know - through archeology, anthropology etc- so much about what the real situation was. It is odd that continental aesthetics (Saul's brand, I gather) has something in common with analytic aesthetics here - a reluctance to read history. DA http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/derek.allan/default.htm On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 12:20 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In a message dated 7/4/08 10:05:25 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > Without realizing it, he is in the grip of a view of art history which > was well and truly in the realm of the problematical by the 1930s - > and which is quite outmoded now. (One only has to go to any major art > museum - or browse the shelves of any bookshop with a decent art book > section - to see that.) > > > Could you explain what you see as Benjamin's view of art history? Or would > that take too long? > Kate Sullivan > > > > ************** > Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars. > (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007) -- Derek Allan http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/derek.allan/default.htm
