Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Author(s): Michael Camille, Zeynep elik, John Onians, Adrian Rifkin and Christopher B.
Steiner
Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), pp. 198-217
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3046172
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Rethinking
the
Canon
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
1 99
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200
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
of the
2Monsterat the edge of the inner face of the left socle
170
1
ca.
Cathedral,
Senlis
of
Portal
West
ormlng
of
manesque"bestiality perching on one of the key examples
is
that
Senlis
from
sculpture
an"Early Gothic" portal. The
studies
most
in
reproduced
gets
partof the canon, and that
Virgin
ofmedieval sculpture, is the DeathandAssumptionof the
indisame
the
by
carved
perhaps
inthe tympanum above,
latter's
the
than
Rather
monster.
vidual who made the
controls
canonicalstatus, more pressing issues would be who
eventual
its
deterioration,
physical
rapid
accessto it and its
disappearance.
In planning a graduate course, "Monstrosityin Medieval
the
Art,"I have begun to create a canon of monsters in which
lists of
Senlisbeast has assumed an important place. Making
example
the slimy, feathery, and scaly, and comparing this
dragon
a
more
be
to
out
turns
it
that
find
I
withmany others,
goes
than a basilisk, as I first thought; its complex ancestry
Jacques
backhundreds of years and crosses three continents.
Derrida has recently described how "as soon as one perceives
which
a monster in a monster, one begins to domesticate it,"
and
sources
its
is exactly what I am doing in my search for
sculpture
meaning.5 Nineteenth-century canons of medieval
of
were constructed according to a Linnean taxonomy
the
on
more
nature. Modernist canons, though focused
Our
figurative, tended ironically toward disembodiment.
and
monsters
to
own age, I would suggest, looks more
technological
recent
hybrids as paradigms, precisely because
into
displacements and prosthetic possibilities have called
essay
her
In
are.
question the very notion of what bodies
Donna
"The Promises of Monsters," historian of science
cretransformations
Haraway examines how technological
and
human
of
plethora
a
ated "out of what is not quite
and
categories
our
altered
inhuman actors" have radically
to
seem
actually
would
monster
canons.6 Her concept of the
about
thinking
of
way
me to be a far more promising
of the
classifying medieval art than the traditional notion
is a
canon
the
Whereas
obvious.
canon. The advantages are
the
Torah,
the
or
Bible
the
like
text,
transcendent, uncreated
canon
the
Whereas
creation.
a
monster is a material creature,
is constructed out of the always already known, prejudged
lnto
s. zoc. (lng
vlslblllty.
art
The prophet shows us his scroll, teaching, as the
a
in
live
now
we
But
out.
things
historiandoes, by pointing
through
future
the
behold
people
visualculture in which
actual
clickingon icons rather than through pointing at
is
revolution
computer
the
of
myths
things.One of the major
images,
democratizing
by
canon
that it will collapse the
makingeverything that can be reduced to a screen available
a wider
to everyone. There is much talk about including
visual
new
providing
and
range of "others" in museums
marginalized
previously
and
venuesof display to minorities
to
artisticproducers. The new technology, however, seems
us
liberate
really
it
Will
be more Berenson than Baudrillard.
images
from the tyranny of the canon by providing multiple
things
worldwide,
objects
of hundreds of thousands of other
to
order
in
ourselves
which we can combine and redeploy
it
will
Or
past?
the
with
teach and explore, play and perform
by
owned
things
endlessly publicize only those canonical
these
powerful institutions? Copyright laws will insure that
to
inviolable
more
even
images will be sacrosanct anyway,
facsimiOnce
originals.
analysisand redeployment than their
les are available, of course, the things themselves disappear
see a
into the vaults.8 I suppose it is better that students
the
or
page,
screen verslon o a palntlng, a manuscrlpt
seem
now
that
Souillac Isaiah than the murky xeroxes
ubiquitous in undergraduate teaching. Yet I would disagree
new
with researchers in medieval art who have embraced the
historical
of
means
computer technology as an empowering
reality
vision, allowing them to take their classes on virtual
In
example.
for
trips inside and around Chartres Cathedral,
misplaced
Duc's
this they are not only following Viollet le
mapositivist logic, which saw the cathedrals as wonderful
the
of
experience
chines, but are also further reducing their
when
moment
past to a single, simulated register. At the very
to artbody and performance have become fundamental
focus
our
fixing
is
historical concerns, our visual technology
the
and
canon
The
firmly within the screen/picture frame.
but
eroded,
be
idea of a canonical object then will not
of mass
actually reinforced by market-driven technologies
.
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RETHINKING
5. "Facedwith a monster, one may become awareof what the norm is and
when this norm has a history any appearance of monstrosityin this domain
allows an analysis of the history of the norms.... The monster is also that
which appears for the first time and, consequently, is not yet recognized. A
monster is a species for which we do not have a name, which does not mean
that the species is abnormal, namely the composition or hybridization of
alreadyknown species. Simply, it showsitself [elle se montre] that is what the
word monster means it shows itself in something that is not yet shown and
that therefore looks like a hallucination, it strikes the eye, it frightens
precisely because no anticipation had prepared one to identify this figure";
Jacques Derrida, Points. . . Interviews,1974-1994, Stanford, 1995, 386.
6. Donna Haraway,"The Promise of Monsters:A Regenerative Politics for
Inappropriate/d Others," CulturalStudies,ed. L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, and
P.A. Treichler, New York/London, 1992, 295-337.
THE CANON
201
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202
Colonialism,Orientalism,
and the Canon
ZeynepSelik
The recent inquiry in art and architectural history that
centers on "rethinking the canon" is closely linked with the
current focus on socioculturalintersections of the "Western"
and "non-Western"worlds. This is clearly manifested, for
example, in the growing inclusion of non-Western art and
architecturein surveycourses.1Considering art and architecture within the broadened parameters of intricate power
relations has resulted in a reframing of the canon and new
readings of it. On the whole, this does not mean that the
traditional perspective has been replaced, but that additional ways of seeing and understanding works of art and
architecture have been introduced. Although at times the
repositioning seems to render the conventional interpretations obsolete, in its essence it only exposes meanings
hitherto excluded from the discourse. Perhaps this process
can best be explained by a technical term borrowed from
engineering and adapted by sociology as a research tool:
triangulation.Triangulation, used in land surveyingto determine a position, offers the possibility of multiple readings in
history. InJanet Abu-Lughod'swords, triangulation is based
on the understanding that "there is no archimedian point
outsidethe system from which to view historic reality."2
Undoubtedly, Edward Said's Orientalism(1979) marked a
turning point in the awareness we have of viewing cultural
products through a lens that highlights the underlining
politics of domination. Art and architectural history have
responded to Said's challenge, albeit on a more subdued
scale than some other academic fields. Not surprisingly,
much of this recent scholarshipfollows the model established
by Orientalismand engages in a series of analyses focusing on
works of art and architecturethat contribute to the construction of an "Orient."As Said himself stated, Orientalismwas a
study of the "West"alone. It was not intended as a crosscultural examination and did not claim to give voice to the
"other" side-an issue Said addressed in his later writings.3
Art historians have followed him and offered innovative and
critical readings of Orientalism, but always focusing on the
"West."4
To introduce new viewing positions on the map by listening to historically repressed voices complicates any neat
framing of the canon, engages it in an unfamiliar and
uncomfortable dialogue, and resituates it. Yet the fruits are
worth the effort. Here are two case studies: an 1830s urban
design intervention in a colonial setting, the city of Algiers;
and the thematic repertory of a turn-of-the-century"Orientalist" Ottoman artist, Osman Hamdi. Colonialism and
I would like to thank Diane Favro, Eve Sinaiko, and PerryWinston for their
comments and suggestions.
1. Surveytextbooks also reflect this trend. A remarkableexample is Spiro
Kostof,A Historwof Architect?ere,New York/Oxford, 198S, which goes beyond
mere "inclusion"and pulls the non-Western material into the heart of the
argument. Kostof pairs, for example, Cairowith Florence in the late Middle
Ages and Venice with Istanbulin the 16th century.
2. Janet Abu-Lughod, "On the Remaking of History:How to Reinvent the
Past," in Barbara Kruger and Phil Mariani, eds., Remsking Historw, Seattle,
989,112.
3. Among his numerous writings dealing with this issue, see, e.g., Edward
Said, "Intellectuals in the Post-Colonial World," Salmagandi,nos 70-71,
Spring-Summer 1986, 44-64; idem, "ThirdWorld Intellectuals and Metropolitan Culture," Raritan, IX, no. 3, 1990, 27-50; and idem, Calture and
Imperialism, New York, 1993.
4. For the first article to deal with the significance of Said's work in the
interpretation of l9th-century painting, see Linda Nochlin, "The Imaginary
Orient,"Art in America, LXXI, no. 5, 1983, 118-31, 187-91.
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
203
Al-Qaisariya
hadbeen namedPlaza
And to think that holy books were sold and bound
there.
They have rummagedthrough the tombs of our fathers,
Andtheyhavescatteredtheirbones
To allowtheirwagonsto go overthem.
O believers,the worldhas seenwithits owneyes.
Theirhorsestied in ourmosques.1l
of Algiers prior to the French conquest has been done by Andre Raymond,
"Le Centre d'Alger en 1830," Revuede l'occidentmusulmanet de la Mediterranee, XXXI, no. 1, 1981, 73-81.
10. For example, the 18th-century mosque of al-Sayyida, qualified by
Raymond as "one of the most elegant religious monuments of Algiers,"was
demolished to make room for the Place du Gouvernement.
11. Quoted in A. A. Heggoy, The French Conquestof Algiers, 1830: An
AlgerianOralTradition,Athens, Ohio, 1986, 22-23.
12. DjaffarLesbet, La Casbahd'Alger,Algiers, [ca. 1985], 3948.
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204
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
the
tion.
ca. 1906.
in Front of the Mosque, author)
Discussion
(photo:
Hamdi,
2 Osman
and Sculpture
Museumof Painting
Istanbul,
to the end of
opposition persisted symbol, but
This
is possible.''l3
ation
not only the
made the Casbah
and
rule
French
resistance.
of nineteenththe actual locus of
also
within the history
an example of
as
Whetherpresented
or, more critically,
of
planning
French
century
in the urban fabric
interventions
side.
practice,
from one
oppressive
conventionally only
on the scene,
have been viewed
actor
Algiers
as the main
colonizer
the
Yet the
highlighting
By
to reiterate his empowerment. each
helped
discourse
the
existed and confronted each
and the colonized
in which
colonizer
interactive web,
within a complex
some form of resisother
by
of power was counteracted
balance of the
exercise
shape and the
the
redefined
equation into the
tancethat
the latter part of the
Bringing
relationship.
of both the colonizer's
the frozen status
disrupts
powerlessness of the
discourse
and the disquietening
power
unilateral
Africa were often
colonized.
East and North
Near
the
of
Cities
by nineteenth-century
imaginary "Orient"
nevertheless, the
collapsedinto an
discourse;
artistic
and
was very differEuropean literary
setting of Istanbul
sociocultural
and
centurywas the time
political
nineteenth
The
Algiers.
Ottoman Empire.
ent from that of
reforms in the
westernizing
imposed by
intensive
of
however, were not
norms,
and
and implemented
European forms
they were initiated
external colonization; elite, with imported expertise from
ruling
from within by the
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
205
ZeynepCelikteachesarchitectural
historyat theNewJerseyInstitute
of Technology.She is the authorof The Remaking of Istanbul
(Washington, 1986; California, 1993) and Displaying the
Orient (California,1992) and the co-editorof Streets: Critical
Perspectives on Public Space (California,1994) [400 Riverside
Drive,New York,N.Y. 10025].
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206
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
seriouslyinadequate
There is, for example, at present a
worldwide
production
matchbetweenthe patternof artistic
material
interesting
and the literature.Mostof the visually
and
recorded
poorly
is
culturegeneratedby Homo sapiens
about by local
discussed. Some art is known and talked
little
accesbecoming
without their knowledge ever
populations
the
establish
to
thus
to Western scholars. A first task is
sible
improve
to
and
and quantity of art in the world and
range
taking the
to knowledge of it. This process involves
access
involves
also
It
view of what is visually interesting.
broadest
different
on
the variation of concentration
acknowledging
cultures. It is as
of art through time and across
forms
disregard
to understand why many Europeans
important
disreChinese
many
that they consider decorative, why
arts
other
many
why
painting that is not by literati, and
gard
functional
not
disregard that which is old and so
peoples
the materials that
their social order, as it is to study
within
desirable for
neglect. In a related area, it is highly
they
teachers to
and North American scholars and
European
set
necessarily
that their academic interests do not
realize
the
of
There is much to learn from the activities
standards.
with the study
emerging departments concerned
numerous
America. Many of
art in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin
of
put the whole of art
divide the discipline in wayswhich
these
be seen as evenly
a new perspective. In India art may
into
China to
over the landmass which stretches from
distributed
recipient, and
with India as a central keystone,
Europe,
and Japan the
of many influences. In Southeast Asia
source
and "Western"
of art may be divided into "Eastern"
territory
and North
Just as the confidence of Europeans
categories.
their own
on
has led to an excessive concentration
Americans
Asian countries
so the absence of such pride in some
culture,
which provides a model
haspromoted an evenhandedness
non-Western institution
fora truly World Art view. Each
important to offer
something
have
concernedwith art may
Their diversity also
others,including those in the West.
institutions often present
remindsus that, although Western
in an international
themselvesas a solid group engaged
by local interests.
affected
strongly
discipline,they are in fact
long adopted a
have
States
United
Departments in the
but have become increasbroaderview than those in Europe,
in Europe often claim
Those
inglysubject to social pressures.
in reality reflect largely
to deal with art in general, yet may
the study of popular
nationalpriorities. In Eastern Europe
is now threatened
Communism,
art,which developed under
exposes the
rapidly
perspective
withextinction. A worldwide
within what we
underlying disunities and incompatibilities
art history.
consider the single discipline of Western
spectrum both of
full
the
The benefits of reappraising
approaches are nowhere
available material and of available
of European art. Instead
more dramatic than in the context
that it is predictunderstood
of seeming so familiarand well
as it is usually
boring,
even
able in its development and
unknown and
as
itself
reveals
it
presented in the literature,
a continent every bit as
puzzling. Europe becomes in effect
light to this situation the
"dark"as Africa. In order to bring
material culture has to
complete range of visuallyinteresting
to the present, from
be studied, from the Palaeolithic
crafts to palace decoraPortugal to the Ukraine, from folk
to consumer videos. Only
tion, and from artists'sketchbooks
art is recognized is it
when the multiformvarietyof European
unique properties of the
possible to analyze and explain the
running from ancient
currently canonical artistic tradition
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
207
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208
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
greater manual
are only possible because of a much
B.C.
13,000 B.C.,
By the Magdalenian period, around
control.
a regular
become
of the hand itself have
representations
hand is
the
on
of paintings on cave walls. From then
feature
reaching
tasks,
to accomplish more and more subtle
used
lacquerwork,Italian
pitches of manipulative skill in Han
new
etchdrawings, and Dutch seventeenth-century
Renaissance
master,
a
from
learned
the necessary movements being
ings,
perfected by practice.
froma dancing-teacher, and then
as
rules from
development of the hand follows different
The
experience,
individual
by
of the eye, the latter formed
that
workings of both
former by imitative exercise, but the
the
of art.
history
of rules are well revealed in the
sets
of eye and
operations
Oncewe are studying the separate
dealing
are
we
material,
the
and their interaction with
hand
the
behind
lies
everywhere
the essential circle which
with
reasons
the
of
some
asking
to
of art and we are close
making
of Homosapiens.
its very existence as a worldwide activity
for
way that it is
the
making,
art
cultural context of
The
reliby educational, social, political, economic,
influenced
is comparphilosophical, technical, and other factors,
gious,
and
physiology
human
in
basis
Its
well understood.
atively
environand the human relation to the natural
psychology
artisticactivityand
is not. The reasons for the origins of
ment
throughout a wide
reasons for its abiding importance
the
A history of
of times and places have still to be sought.
variety
a cultural
less
be
which explores such issues will inevitably
art
a natural history.
than
begin with the artlike
One such natural history could well
our human
of animals such as the dolphin. For
activities
long
activities
in such
ancestorsmust have been involved
art
of
origin
The
beforethey became socially controlled.
chance
the
in
lie
makingin humans must, as with dolphins,
which links eye and
resultsof the operation of the circuit
of matemodification
a
motorsystem through the brain in
spontanea
behind
Just such a circuit lies, for example,
rial.
which involves
ousbehavior noted in female chimpanzees,
fondling it as
then
and
gatheringmoss into babylikebundles
behavior is
chimpanzee
if it was a real child. Studying
sugfindings
scientific
particularlyappropriate since recent
comfrom
sprang
gestboth that humans and chimpanzees
years ago and that we
monancestors as recently as six million
which determines
code
the
stillshare 99 percent of our DNA,
studying chimof
our biological makeup.3 The importance
of a subgroup,
studies
by
out
panzees is particularlybrought
remarkable
these
that
shows
the bonobos. Recent work
capable of
physiologically
relatives,although not themselves
and can communicate,
speech, have the ability to follow it
require capacities
which
ideograms
using sign languages and
once thought
syntax
of
use
the
for symbolization and
observations suggest
exclusively human.4 These and other
speech depends, though
that most of the abilities on which
primates.5This has a
not speech itself, are present in other
that humans are
general importance, since it indicates
less decisively than was
separated from other animals much
Originsof Intelligence,Oxford,
3. R. Byrne, The ThinkingApe:Evolutiona7y
1995, 14-26.
Kanzi: TheApe at the Brink of the
4. S. Savage-Rumbaughand R. Lewin,
special
even ten years ago. It has an additional
thought
the
that
shows
it
for the history of art, since
significance
involve
autonomously
between eye, brain, and hand
linkages
once thought to be
of the complex neural connections
many
of language.
associated with the development
exclusively
is shared
intelligence
of what we think of as human
Much
must be
and
apes,
great
the
other primates, especially
with
set of
not with language but with the particular
associated
to their particuthrough which they accommodated
behaviors
are essenbodies
our
and
ecologicalniche. Our brains
lar
fifteen
least
at
for
who
animals
those of a family of
tially
This
biology.
unique
a
of
because
years have thrived
million
separable
polychrome binocular vision and soft-tipped
links
visually
much
storing
of
both
capable
through a brain
fingers
and individual
information about foods, predators
learned
the develfacilitating
of
and
enemies,
friends, and
relatives,
art
making,
of behaviors appropriate to each. Tool
opment
spin-offs
as
and speech are likely to have all begun
making,
Probwith the development of other behaviors.
associated
have
speech
and
only the propensities for tool making
ably
for
selected
such clear advantages as to be genetically
offered
art
for
that
like
Homo sapiens. That for art making
in
significantly
which
useis likely to be a marginal adaptation
environments and
behavior only in particularphysical
affects
pathological as
much
contexts. Even then it may be as
social
many forms of
the
adaptive. Within a natural history
socially
interestbehaviors
as
making and art use can be studied
art
underbe
to
need
which
in their own right, behaviors
ing
are
they
ever
before
in terms of their causes and effects
stood
moral,
political,
or
in terms of their social function
discussed
aesthetic values.
and
art may disturb some
The idea of such a natural history of
name nor the idea is
the
historians. It should not. Neither
art
known in Europe is
new.The very first history of art
of his NaturalHistory,a
presentedby Pliny the Elder as part
fact that many human
titlewhich for him brings out the
natural materials. His
of
activitiesrequire the processing
contains much informaaccountof painting and sculpture
sources, information
Greek
from
tionon the history of art
of any field of
history
the
to
relating
whichresembles that
rehearsed since.
Greekculture and which has been endlessly
concern. What interests
Thisis not, however, Pliny's main
of animal,
himis man's exploitation of such transformations earlier.
those discussed
vegetable,and mineral substances as
proposed here in its
that
anticipates
thus
HisNaturalHistory
with the material.
concentrationon the human engagement
the roles of the eye and
It may lack an acknowledgment of
hand is discussed by his
the hand, but the training of the
his Institutionsof Oratory
younger contemporary Quintilian in
the place of mental
( 1. 1.27) and the role of the eye, including
already discussed only a
formation in visual perception, is
in his Life of
hundred years later by Flavius Philostratus of present
shortcomings
Apollonius of Tyana (2.22). The
by the way in which they
histories of art are well illustrated
is associated with a
Empire
never hint that the high Roman
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
209
Theory as a Place
Adrian RiJkin
Theoryand History
Someyearsago I wrotefor a collectionentitledTheNew Art
History(1986),editedby A1Rees and FrancesBorzello.lI'm
not sure quitewhatturnedout to be the criticalfate of this
attemptto establishsome parametersfor a supposeddisciplinein the making,whetherit is widelyreador hasvanished
from consideration.My own essay, "Art'sHistories,"although in some waystypicallyconcernedwith historiography, and close enough to some of the other contributions,
wasfairlypessimisticaboutthe subject.It proposedthat the
"newart history"representeda conceptualpolicingof the
potentiallyfruitful effects of interdisciplinarydisintegrations, as well as a neutralizinginto a newdisciplinarycanon
of the politics,feministor anticolonialistfor example,that
haddrivenand determinedits development.
The essay was useful in its applicationof a Derridean
notion of framingto the objectof art history'sinquiriesthat is, to "art,"as a problematicsignified.Yet it wasclearly
inadequatein its exemplificationof what its propositions
mightimplyforthe positiveconstructionof an alternativeart
history,endingup witha warningagainstuncriticalbeliefin
theory'scapacityeither to exhaust or to demystifyart's
meanings.If I returnto it here as my startingpoint, this is
because,in relocatingit and myselfwithinit, I wantto think
throughsomethingof the conditionsof theory'smaking.I
wouldratherdo this thanengagemyselfin a statementof its
magicalpowersand efficacities.
Since then I have avoided attempts to define or even
suggesta theoreticalconditionfor the historyof art, preferring to write in a mode which supposes the necessityof
complexreflectionandreflexivityin turninganyarchiveinto
narrative,where that archiveis both somethingthat comes
out of dustyboxesandis alsoa historyof all kindsof theories.
This I hold to be a reasonableoutcome of my essay, and
resolutelyold-fashionedas a wayof working.Afterall, it is a
procedure modeled on the expositionarytechniques of
chapter 14 of Marx's Capital or passages from Claude
Levi-Strauss
in Tristes tropiquesor Le Cru et le cuit, thatwriters
as disparateas JacquesDerridaand TzvetanTodorovhave
deridedfor theirtotalizingphilosophicalambitions.And,as
we shallsee, I wantthe playof discourseto open out so as to
revealtheory'slimitations,to precipitatea challengeto its
reasonthatwe mightthinkof as sublimein Kantianterms.
Butthiswayof writingalsocomesfromless thancanonical
literaryimageryand narrativeforms, such as the series of
sciencefictionsthatmakeup DorisLessing'sCanopus inArgos
or SamuelDelany'sTales of Neveryon. As faras conceptualizing historicaltime and representationis concerned,these
novelsofferas much materialfor considerationas Fernand
Braudel or Jean Baudrillardhave ever brought to the
marketplace.They also happen to be very good on gender
1. For materials relevant to this discussion, see the list of sources given at
the end.
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210
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
of identities
sexuality,figuring the kind of complexity
and
in
improbable
and
desiresthat appears merely wooden
and
a
or
Edelman,
a Lee
academicrhetoric of aJudith Butler,
the
de Lauretis.
Teresa
as if they were
SoI declare my fondness for treating
Repretensions.
texts that have no such overt
theoretical
literatureI have been workingwith gay S/M romantic
cently
orJackie Collins at her
leatherequivalent of pulp erotica,
the
certain Freudoas the terrain of an offensive against
best
culture. What
models for the scrutiny of art and
Lacanian
where
in an imaginaryhuis closof gay pornography
happens
one
the
identified
phallus and the penis are successfully
the
the
for
regard
the other in ignorance of and without
with
claim
would
veto of those Lacanianregulations that
watchful
How does
even to try to identify them is pathological?
that
the representational
theory signification that depends on
the
in the light of my
modified
be
to
of the phallus come
power
into
And how can this knowledge be brought
experiment?
gayer
a
of
history of art when the theoretical parameters
the
femipost-Freudian
of
those
history are often already
art
ofJohn Preston or
Pornography,whether the novellas
nism?
to stand in for an
drawings of Tom of Finland, comes
the
to account
against which theory can be brought
"experience"
the grain"
against
"reading
a that the now customary
inway
thecanon seems all too rarelyto accomplish.
of
to this, which is
There is a more rarefied counterpart
as
to take bodies of much older theory
experimentally
Condilto modern culturalmaterials.For example,
adequate
by a
unauthorized
and
De l'art d'e'crire,unburdened
lac's
Ferdinand de
theory of language such as that of
subsequent
with the
or Derrida, may be brought into contiguity
Saussure
as
Lacan,
of
critique
a
as
pornography which is serving
same
estranges it from current
ameans of placing it in a way that
analysis through, for
routinesof linguistic and gender
Condillac's exposition
of
example,a metaphorical aligning
of an inverted
notion
the
ofthe trope "inversion" with
trope, which is
the
of
sexuality.The Condillacian spacing
not rhizomic),
resolutely
lateraland nonhierarchical (yet
"inversion"as
of
use
providesa critique both of the overeasy
marginality
imagining
of
ifit were subversion, and a means
in its
specific
historically
as
asa space within language/image
detailed
the
with
utterance.That is to say, I am concerned
that is as much gramstructuringof a poetics of difference
to, not readily
matical as figural and, while particular
was tentatively
This
equated with, a state of the world.
Kunst,"Bitte
zur
Texte
for
outlinedin a recent article of mine
anderen,"
und
Kant
nicht beruhren Tom mit Sebastiano,
for the
history
archival
whichdeals with the invention of an
del
Sebastiano
by
comparison of a flagellation (of Christ)
FollowFinland.
of
Tom
Piombo with another (of bikers) by
and politics of
ing through and interweavingthe genealogies
in a space
placed
is
the two images, the Christianflagellation
called
space
another
in
called "sade," and the gay one
reading
ethical
an
of
"kant," thus outlining the possibility
alike.
beyond iconography and subject theory
picky process of
rather
this
At the same time I don't see
from some of my other
redoing bits of gay theory as distinct
ideolorecent work on Revolutionaryand post-Revolutionary
been
have
I
where
France,
in
criticism
gies of drawingand art
of the
to map out the rhetorical preconditions
concerned
of
parameters
complex
of meaning against
production
conam
I
instances
conjuncture. In all of these
historical
of the
with different forms, orders, and circumstances
cerned
realizations
and
of tropes, and hence with concepts
duration
written. That
in historical narrativeas it is being
duration
of
of framing,
notion
say,
toI have stuck with the Derridean
is
rather
archive
the
of
amIworking with it as a condition
but
openinfinite
some
as the tautological legislation of
than
This is theory as pragmatics.
endedness.
this is not simply a
the whole I feel sure, and hope, that
On
all too obviously
it
flight into eclecticism. In part,
midlife
writing and the
of
a relation between a genre
reflects
that the
of its production. Which is to say
conditions
pedaof contemporary academic management,
demands
imposbut
all
it
and going to conferences may make
gogy,
that it is to
to give in to that oh-so-fulfillingjouissance
sible
before
day,
the
in the real, dusty archive during
luxuriate
Things
evening.
down to some Hegel or Zizek in the
settling
on the run, and
put together, often on demand, usually
get
the institution.
of
in response to some movement
always
quite such an
in
would there be a question of theory
Indeed,
rapidly from
fly
to
form as it is today were we not able
acute
ever
numbers,
large
location to another, and in quite
one
disciplinof
theaters
frequentlyelaboratingfor ourselves
more
conference like the
a
ago
years
thirty
difference? Even
ary
contre David,"
bicentennial "do"at the Louvre, "David
1789
materiality
very
have been unthinkable. And it is this
would
have supported the rise
ofourmass production that seems to
of generations and
theory's status in an intensified play
of
.
posltlons.
It rarelyseems to be
holds little or nothing to tempt me.
maimed
much more than a pale shade, a philosophically
for
texts
more
ever
parody of its original, accumulating
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
211
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212
ART BULLETIN
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1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
The point at which this did become clear was later, when,
under the brutal transformations of education in the early
1980s, our finely tuned programs of study rapidly collapsed.
They were simply too expensive to be allowed to run. It was
now that, left to its own devices, cut off from a daily practice
of difference, myart history found the need for reflection on
itself, its origins, its processes, and its destiny. One site for
this, a channel for communication, was "theory,"now looking redemptive rather than the rationale for an educational
pragmatics.One space was the magazine called Block,a place
where sometimes quirky and unedited thinking could flourish without the responsibilityof legislation, though of course
that did happen. Another was Les Revoltes logiques, that
wonderful Parisian exit from Althusserian rigidity to a
ravishing vein of reflexivity, and Jacques Rancieres's radical
rereadings of Kant. My memorywas Tel Quel,Wind, Rosenau,
and the others revisited through over a decade of teaching
and the exponential growth of culturaltheory as an academic
.
specla
lsm.
Now, another ten years on, brooding on Rosenau's problematic circle, I feel that her dilemma really manifested a
desire to leave something in reserve, over the boundary of
explanation. I hope that my gay flagellation is just such an
enigma, drawnin its space called "kant"for which theory has
no adequate description. The circle was, in the end, a
Kantianimaginaryspace. And, in all probability,the centrality of the inexplicable and the mystery at the heart of the
high Warburgian tradition itself represented a desire to
confront knowledge with its limitations.
This is where I would like to let the matter of theory rest.
Theory understood as the key to nothing, as a utopian figure
for the possiblity of noninstrumental thought, as a means of
renouncing control, and escape from the ambitions of our
episteme as from our professional vanity; if eclectic, then it's
because of this condition as a refuge for experience, whether
unresolved or limpid in its certainty.
. TheImageofthePeople:GustaveCourbetand theSecondFrenchRepublic,
1848-1851. London: Thames and Hudson, 1973.
Collins,Jackie. HollywoodWives.New York, 1984.
Condillac,Abbe Etienne Bonnot de. "De l'art d'ecrire."Pt.3 of Coursd'e'tudes
du Princede Parme,1775.
pourl'instruction
Delany,Samuel R. TalesofNeveryon.New York:Bantam, 1979.
Paris:Minuit, 1969.
Derrida,Jacques. De la grammatologie.
. La Veriteenpeinture.Paris:Flammarion, 1978.
Essaysin GayLiteraryand CulturalTheory.New
Edelman,Lee. Homographesis:
York:Routledge, 1994.
Hauser,Arnold. TheSocialHistoryofArt.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1951.
Irigaray,Luce. CeSexequin'enpas un. Paris:Seuil, 1978.
Kant,Immanuel. Analyticof the Beautiful,trans. W. Cerf. New York: BobbsMerrill, 1963.
Krauss, Rosalind. The Optical Unconscious.Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
1993.
of Gender:Essayson Theory,Film,and Fiction.
de Lauretis,Teresa. Technologies
London: Macmillan, 1987.
Lessing, Doris. Re: ColonisedPlanet 5; Shikasta;Personal,Psychologicaland
HistoricalDocumentsRelatingto the VisitofJohor (GeorgeSherban);Emissary
(Grade9); 87th of the Periodof the LastDays. Canopus on Argos: Archives
series. New York:Grafton, 1981-.
Levi-Strauss,Claude. TristesTropiques.Paris:Plon, 1955.
. Le Cruet le cuit. Paris:Plon, 1964.
Marx,Karl.Capital,trans. B. Fowle. Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1976.
Nochlin, Linda. Realism.Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1971.
and OtherIndecentActs.New York:
Preston, John. My Lifeas a Pornographer
RichardKasak, 1993.
. Mr. Benson.New York:Badboy, 1992.
Ranciere,Jacques. LePhilosopheet sespaurres.Paris:Fayard, 1983.
Rifkin, A. "Art'sHistories." In The New Art History,ed. A. L. Rees and F.
Borzello, 157-63. London: Camden, 1986.
. "The Words of Art, the Artist'sStatus:Technique and Affectivityin
xrv,no. 2, 1991, 73-82.
France, 1789-98." OxfordArtJournal,
. "Bitte nicht beruhren Tom mit Sebastiano, Kant und anderen."
TextezurKunst,v,no. 17,Feb. 1995, 13747.
Paris and LondonCompared,
Rosenau, Helen. Social Purposein Architecture:
1 760-1800. London: Studio Vista, 1970.
Schapiro, Meyer. ModernArt: Nineteenthand TwentiethCenturies.Selected
Papers, ll. London: Chatto and Windus, 1978.
Spivak,GayatryChakravorty."The Rani of Sirmur."Historyand Theory,xxrv,
no. 3, 1985, 22540.
. "Imperialism and Sexual Difference." OxfordLiteraryReview,Vlll,
nos. 1-2, 1986,22540.
Warburg,Aby. "ALectureon Serpent Ritual."Journalofthe WarburgInstitute,
1,no.2, 1938, 277-92.
Werskmeister,O. K. CitadelCulture.Chicago:Chicago UniversityPress, l991.
Williamson, Judith. ConsumingPassions: The Dynamicsof Popular Culture.
London: Marion Boyars, 1986.
Wind, Edgar. PaganMysteriesin theRenaissance.London: Faber, 1958.
Sources
Journals
TelQuel, 1967-1973
logiquesn1975-1985
LesRe'voltes
Blockn1980-1990
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
213
canonlclty:
Canon as Container
The canon of art history, like any system founded on
taxonomic hierarchy, is only meaningful, and indeed perhaps only powerful, insofar as it excludes a large body of
what are deemed noncanonical and, therefore, inferior
materials. Just as Mary Douglas demonstrated so convincingly in Purityand Danger that the category "sacred"could
not exist were it not for the presence of its base and profane
counterparts, so too the canonical could not survivewithout
its unorthodox antithesis-the noncanonical.4
Because the canon is awash in a swarming sea of rapidly
multiplying impurities, its greatest enemy is the encroachment of foreign elements which threaten its fragile and
embattled boundaries. As literary critic Harold Bloom put it
in his recent, controversial book The WesternCanon, "Over-
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214
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
ModernArt, NewYork
Arts"at the Museumof
Decorative
and
Textiles
of the exhibition"African
Shaker:InstallationviewArt)
1Canon
Modern
(photo:Museumof
1972
and
"African Furniture
and
Arts"
Textiles and Decorative Sieber, whose doctoral dissertawas constructed
canon
the
Objects,''ll Roy
why
and
Household
ofBlackAfrica
type
question of how
one
for
difficult
canonical oeuvre Sculpture the United
admittance
subsequent
piecemeal
and
tion
in
little to
theplace. Seeking
infirst
field of African art
art or another does
largely defined the
had
up" the canon
undervalued
"opened
hierarputatively
of
ofthe 1960s,l2
of inequity and
decade
the
structures
for
items (Fig.
States
the fundamental
challenge
adornment and household neglected
order. If anything, in
of
objects
canonical
the
in
include
to
are inherent
forms has been
which
chy
validate the canon
"Thestudy of these traditionalintroduction to one of the
function merely to
1).
practices
such
the
fact,
West," Sieber wrote in
focused
the
by
attention has been
system.
"where
catalogues,
exhibition
on the sculpture of Africa.''l3attention to hitherto
primarily
Canons
within
drew
hierarchical
Canons
routinized
Sieber's exhibitions
is a highly
Although
history
art
of
study and new potential
canon
relegated
art
Ifthe
have been
of African
arts
domains
non-Western
untapped
was still placed on
a
in which most
system
and display, emphasis
within the canon is itself
collecting
of
subfield
each
areas
arts. Excluded from
of
thelowest status,
to
certain categories
traditional or customary
arts,
embraces
so-called
which
the
system
examples of "tourist"
structured
In this regard, the canon
the canon were any
of
others.
studio
many
version
this
while rejecting
of the
forms of contemporary
objects
an excellent example
arts, and developing
begin
hybrid
subfields
of exclusion, we must
African art history provides
the
of
that typifies
understand this logic
ranking
To
and
canonical
arts.l4
define
factionalism
internal
criterion used to
or
noting that the key
by
collecton a standardof cultural
the discipline.
and
of
based
been
scholarship
always
art
has
art
African
African
is untainted by outside
concenBurgeoning interest in
that is, an object that
of the twentieth century
purity
years
ethnic
early
the
from
ingduring
masks and figural sculpture Neinfluence.
primarilyon wooden
trade or those representing
Africa.
trated
of sub-Saharan
of
made for the export
region
Works
defined
of
have been rejected out
other parts
avery narrowly
from
inspiration
arts
and
of
array
influence
acknowla huge
foreign
objects
glectedwere not only
art forms. In short, any
a whole range of aesthetic stools,
as impure or corrupt
coexist
also
hand
might
but
Africans
and
thecontinent,
region itself including
that "authentic"Africa
frowned
edgment
been
delimited
has
the
jewelry,
fromwithin
twentieth century
musical instruments,
withthe West in the
pottery, baskets, calabashes, exhibitions entitled "African
landmark
and textiles. In two
and artModern Art, New
at the Museum of
respectively,
held,
Museum of Art,
11. Exhibitions
1973; and at the Indianapolis
31,
1972-Jan.
11,
York, Oct.
State University of
Apr.9-May 25, 1980.
Sculpture," Ph.D diss., TishmanCollection,
Tribal
"African
ThePaul
12. Roy Sieber,
at the
Sculptureof BlackAfrica:
Iowa, 1957; and idem, Suzanne Preston Blier, "AfricanArt Studies
See
The Stateof the
Studies:
Art
Los Angeles, 1968.
African
Perspective,"in
Crossroads:An American
10.
D.C., 1990, 92.
Washington,
Arts, New York, 1972,
Discipline,
Textilesand Decorative
exhibition;
African
other
Sieber,
the
Roy
with
13.
is made in conjunction
York/Bloomington, Ind.,
A similar argument
HouseholdObjects,New
and
Furniture
see African
1980, 15.
of anthropological
open up the canon
Nelson H.
aesthetic forms, see
14. For arguments to
hybrid
and
arts
the Fourth
to tourist
from
scholarship
Expressions
historical
and TouristArts:Cultural
TheMessagesofTouristArt:An
H. Graburn, ed., Ethnic
BennettaJules-Rosette, New York, 1984; Ruth B.
World,Berkeley, 1976; Comparative
Perspective,
in
in Native American
AfricanSemioticSystem
Art? Significant Silences Colonialism:Imperial
Tourist
Not
After
ed.,
Phillips, "Why
in Gyan Prakash,
98-128; and
Museum Representation,"
Princeton, NJ., 1995,
Culture:Artand
Unpacking
eds.,
HistoriesandPostcolonialDisplacements,
Christopher B. Steiner,
Ruth B. Phillips and
forthcoming.
and PostcolonialWorlds,
Colonial
africaines/The Authenin
Commodity
l'authenticitedes sculptures
"De
19.
Kamer,
1974,
Henri
XII,
15.
Noire,
Artsd'Afrique
ticityof AfricanSculptures,"
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RETHINKING
THE CANON
215
2 CanonMaker:GiovanniFrancoScanzi
holdingone of the prizedslingshotsiom
hiscollection(photo:Le Guido,Abidjan)
enabling a hitherto unknown and, for that matter, largely
nonexistent art form slowly to edge its way into the canon
of Ivoirian (cum African) art history. Whether or not slingshots are truly "canonical"yet is difficult to answer, but the
process and mechanisms of canon formation are well under
way and clearly revealed.
Canon as Commodity
A number of years ago, Harvard urbanologist Edward C.
Banfield made the following observation about the relationship between commodity value and aesthetic appreciation:
It would not be unduly cynical to say that many of the
thousands who stood in line for a ten-second look at
Aristotle Contemplating the Bust o+Homer [Fig. 4], after the
Metropolitan Museum paid $6 million to acquire it, would
as willingly have stood in line to see the $6 million in
cash.20
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216
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
1996 VOLUME
LXXVIII
NUMBER
new
one ever
itseconomic value? Or, put slightly differently, can
into
taking
without
worth
hopeto assess an object's aesthetic
a
such
words,
other
in
there,
accountits economic worth? Is
pure
"a
ofJudgment
Critique
The
thing as what Kant called in
price,
aesthetic value"? Or is beauty simply a function of
beauty?
of
function
ratherthan price being a
of the
These questions are significant for any reassessment
canoniranking
about
decisions
the
canon of art history, for
where
cal art objects are often mediated by market forces,
Cynevaluation.21
aesthetic
reinforces
rising economic value
the
that
say
would
Veblen,
Thorstein
ics, of course, like
is
value
economic
and
value
aesthetic
correlation between
beautiful,"
things
find
"We
inextricable.
immediate and
of theLeisureClass,"somewhat in
Veblen wrote in TheTheory
But art dealers and philosocostly."22
are
proportion as they
in the same sentence)
discussed
often
not
phers (a pair
between aesthetic
relationship
the
that
assure us together
arbitrary.
entirely
is
value
value and economic
Aesthetician James O. Urmson, for example, has stated
object's
emphatically that the criterion we use to assess an
as
analysis,
aesthetic value can be treated, for the sake of
the
either
of
something entirely free from any consideration
signifiobject's price in the marketplace or its religious
writes:
Novitz
cance.23 Summarizing his perspective, David
economic,
"Forjust as there are distinctive and irreducible
and
moral, intellectual and religious values, so there are
values:
aesthetic
must be wholly discrete and irreducible
values,
values that cannot be explained in terms of any other
art."24
of
works
to
and in terms of which we properly respond
of its
because
only
Urmson's position is extraordinary not
aesthetic
the
that
wrongheaded anthropological assumption
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RETHINKING
4 Canon Gazers:CrowdsviewingRembrandt'sAristotle
at the
MetropolitanMuseumof Art, New York,followingits purchase
by the museumfor a record $2,300,000 in 1961 (photo:
UPI/ Bettmann)
21. See Pierre Bourdieu, "Genese historique d'une esthetique pure," Les
Cahiersdu Muse'enationald'artmoderne,27, 1989, 95-106.
22. Thorstein Veblen, TheTheoryof theLeisureClass,Boston, 1973, 108.
23.J. O. Urmson, "What Makes a Situation Aesthetic?" in Francis J.
Coleman, ed., Contemporary
Studiesin Aesthetics,New York, 1968, 356-69.
Firstpublished in Proceedingsof theAristotelianSociety,supp. vol. XXXI, 1957.
24. David Novitz, "The Integrity of Aesthetics,"JournalofAestheticsandArt
Criticism,XLVIII, no. 1, 1990, 9.
25. Clive Bell,Art, London, 1914. Quoted in Novitz (as in n. 24), 1990, 15.
26. Emile Durkheim, The ElementaryForms of the Religious Life, trans.
Joseph WardSwain, New York, 1965, 249. Firstpublished in French in 1912.
THE CANON
217
Any assault on the canon must therefore begin by unmasking this fetishized image of cultural sanctity and the fictitious
creed of immaculate classification. The true power of the
canon stems not from its various hierarchicaldiscriminations
and orderings, but rather from its mythical status through
which it draws symbolic strength. What is subjectively constructed in the ideological world of culture is made to appear
in its canonical formations as a "natural"and objective entity
in which mythical structures lead collective practice to
unquestioning belief.
In his discussion of the myth system and its relationship to
the division of labor and power, Pierre Bourdieu concludes
in a famous passage from Outlineof a Theoryof Practicethat
"Everyestablished order tends to produce . . . the naturalization of its own arbitrariness."32In other words, Bourdieu
goes on to say, the world of cultural tradition (of which
canons are surely a part) is "experienced as a 'naturalworld'
and taken for granted."33
Those whose understanding or appreciation of art is
structured by canonic principles whether in academia, in
museums, or in popular representations of the art world
profoundly misrecognize the ontological basis of the canon's
existence. The canon is not, in Bourdieu's language, a
"structuredstructure"into which art and artists must simply
be made to fit; rather, it is a structuringstructurewhich is in a
continuous process of reproducing itself, mediating its identity through market forces, and negating the social conditions of its production by covering the tracks of its arbitrary
and subjective formations.
In the end, then, both those who support the canon and
those who seek to "open it up" should worry less about
whether or not the delicate membrane of the canon structure
will rupture from the inclusion of yet one more new artist or
unorthodox art form. They should concern themselves,
rather, with how much longer the misrecognition of the
canon system can persist before its bubble bursts, and in its
evanescence occasion the dissolution of a particularform of
art-historical mythmaking and the deliverance of this discipline from the enchantment of canonic thought.
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