Art History and Translation

Abstract

AbstractThis text reflects on the insights gained in the process of launching Art in Translation, the first journal dedicated to the best writing from around the world on the visual arts in English translation.When art history gained academic currency in the later nineteenth century, it was doubly inflected by language. The subject matter was articulated along linguistic divisions, often reflecting national boundaries. At the same time, schools of art writing developed in the major European languages. According to the standard historiography, German was the dominant language of the discipline in the early years, superseded in the second half of the twentieth century by English. This account insists both on an agreed canon of art writing and on a hierarchical relationship between linguistic areas. From a post-colonial perspective both these positions must be challenged. A more differentiated reading suggests that in spite of the hegemonic power of these principle languages, art history has always been more fragmented, diverse, and written in many more languages. While the hegemony of the English language works against diversity, it offers as a global language the opportunity to communicate across linguistic boundaries. This text addresses the politics of translation in art history: the benefits and dangers of English-language domination. How does translation and its avoidance affect the flow of knowledge and the exchange of ideas? Is it possible, via the act of translation, to encourage a more pluralist and polyglot art history? Beyond these ideological dimensions, this article also investigates the ways in which translation theory enables a rigorous critical methodology that can advance thinking about visual culture.