Seeing the past, visually

Very rarely do we mull upon the importance of art history. Seldom do we even acknowledge the existence of this branch when it actually allows us to understand the high points of our path to civilisation. Art history teaches us to see things differently; join the dots of our past through visual representation. John Berger, one of the most influential art historians this side of last century and who passed away early this year, emphasised this in his seminal book Ways of Seeing.

It would be important to mention the name of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) at this juncture when a part of the world is celebrating his 300th birth anniversary. Winckelmann was the founder of modern archaeology and aesthetics or, let’s say, he was our first art historian who strongly shaped our modern view of antiquity. As a pioneer of European aesthetics during the Classical period, he was of the view that ancient art possessed “noble simplicity and solemn greatness”.

However, his life was no bed of roses. Poor as he was, his condition never deterred him from pursuing his passion, which took him through Halle, Jena and Dresden, and finally to Italy where he established himself as the commentator who would influence the cultural history of the 19th and 20th century. Winckelmann thus was a passionate visionary, a learned enthusiast and an intellectual adventurer who put everything on the line to achieve his life’s dream.

How many of such scholars can we find in our midst? I keep remembering a comment by a senior artist friend. He was talking about the number of students passing out of various institutions with a graduate or masters degree in art history. “They call themselves art historians,” he said. “By that logic,” he added, every degree holder in history would be a historian; in science would be a scientist…” I got the point.

Winckelmann’s theories were what established a form of aesthetics that, according to researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, emph asised “beauty, timelessness, harmonious proportion and expressive restraint”. Winckelmann’s vision of antiquity, they say, not only offered solutions to the aesthetic and social challenges of his times around 1800, but also inspired aesthetic, anthropological and political debates in the 19th and 20th century.

He showed the world a way to read aesthetics in a succession of styles. Berger did that in a succession of sights. No harm in seeking something similar through a succession of scholarship.  

(The author is a leading artist, co-founder of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and curator of the inaugural Yinchuan Biennale)