Contemporary Art and the Concept of Art History: Influence, Dependency and Challenge

Abstract

This chapter aims to discuss the mutual interests of the artist and the art historian and to point out the role of contemporary art in the conception of art history. Nevertheless, the historiographic models that inform contemporary artists and which the artistic practice investigates are based on the European concept of art. When contemporary art claims to be global and our discipline tries to adapt its perspective accordingly, new questions come to the fore. One of the most important starting points for understanding the reciprocal involvement of art production and art history might be found in the education of the artists. In Europe there has been a long tradition of curricula that link the creative process to a historiographic consciousness. The critical and political potential of the artistic appropriation of an art-historical method becomes evident in the work by the German artist Hans Haacke. Keywords:art history; contemporary art; Europe