The Pragmatism in the History of Art

by Molly Nesbit

Molly Nesbit shows how American pragmatism has informed art theory from Meyer Schapiro to T.J. Clark and Linda Nochlin First published in 2013 and quickly going out of print, Molly Nesbit’s The Pragmatism in the History of Art traces the questions that modern art history and theory has used to make sense of the changes overtaking both art and life. Opening with a consideration of pragmatism’s origins in the thought of Charles Sanders Pierce, William James and John Dewey, the book examines the overlaps and disparities between art and philosophy across several generations of art historians, crossing back and forth over the Atlantic. A genealogy emerges through case studies on the work of Schapiro, Henri Focillon, Alexander Dorner, George Kubler, Robert Herbert, T.J. Clark and Linda Nochlin. The philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze and the films of Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard also show distinctly pragmatic effects. Artists discussed include Vincent van Gogh, Isamu Noguchi, Lawrence Weiner and Gordon Matta-Clark.

The Pragmatism in the History of Art precedes The Tempest Essays in Nesbit’s Pre-Occupations series.

Molly Nesbit is Professor in the Department of Art at Vassar College and a contributing editor of Artforum . Her other books include Atget's Seven Albums (1992) and Their Common Sense (2000).

Genres: Art, History

127 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2013

Reviews

[Daniel]

Nesbit's prose is vivid and engaging, her thought and analysis goes to many different places, like zigzagging in a maze. Yet, she is always guided by the Ariaden's thread of pragmatism. She lays good foundations explaining Peirce and James's pragmatism, but I feel that for most of the book, it's Dewey's vision that is more important. The centrality of the idea of analysing via the effects and impact of art in the real world, this is what guides discussions on Foucault and Deleuze, on Meyer Schapiro's Marxist analysis of Courbet and Van Gogh, on Focillon and Kubler's multidisciplinary approach to art history, on Nochlin's discussion of why there no great women artists. It's a fast read, but it will invite me to come back and dig deeper into this pragmatic history of art.

[bethany rennard]

this was hard for me to totally invest in and I had to return to library ! need to revisit