Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Some forty years ago the disciplines of art history and art criticism were scarcely different. By 1990 the History of Art had become a historical discipline focused on the relations between society and art in history. This entailed examining the visual component in social discourse as well as in political and economic theory. Now that social history has become normative in art historical training it is time to ask, what does visual imagery add to the study of cultures and societies? Every historian of art instinctively knows the answer, but we need to reflect more openly on how images contribute to our understanding of social relations. Students of Philosophy and History use texts to make explicit the underlying premises and consequences of any body of theory, such as theories of legitimate governance. But Max Weber suggested that there may be still deeper determinants below the level of verbal logic, an ethos that plays itself out in daily life. W.J.T. Mitchell’s work likewise suggests that the logic structuring social thought can be found in the visual imagery of daily life, even though that logic remains invisible to most scholars.
In this lecture we will explore some case studies demonstrating how visual imagery reveals the operation of logical frames often ignored in traditional historical study. In conclusion I will ask how sociologically informed viewing might contribute to a better-informed citizenry.
