Horizontal Art History and Beyond

This book is devoted to the concept of horizontal art history-a proposal of a paradigm shift formulated by the Polish art historian Piotr Piotrowski (1952-2015)-that aims at undermining the hegemony of the discourse of art history created in the Western world. The concept of horizontal art history is one of many ideas on how to conduct nonhierarchical art historical analysis that have been developed in different geopolitical locations since at least the 1970s, parallel to the ongoing process of decolonization. This book is a critical examination of horizontal art history which provokes a discussion on the original concept of horizontal art history and possible methods to extend it. This is an edited volume written by international scholars who acknowledge the importance of the concept, share its basic assumptions and are aware both of its advantages and limitations. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, art historiography and postcolonial studies.

Agata Jakubowska is Faculty Member in the Institute of Art History, Warsaw University Magdalena Radomska is Faculty Member in the Department of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.

Introduction PART I: Practicing Horizontal Art History: Democracy 1. The Critical Museum Debate Continues 2. Horizontal Art History and the Revolutionary Double Bind 3. Horizontality without Limits: Postcolonial and Postsocialist Experience as Frameworks for Studying Art and Art History in Peripheries PART II: Practicing Horizontal Art History: Localisations 4. About the West 5. Close Other(s) in the West: Spain and Its Horizontal Histories during the Cold War 6. Russian Avant-Garde in the Optics of the Horizontal History of Art 7. Exhibition-Making as Horizontal Art History? 8. Toward Alter-Globalist History of Feminist Art  PART III: Challenging Horizontal Art History and Its Internal Contradictions 9. How to Write a Global History of Central and Eastern European Art 10. Not Horizontal Enough: Horizontal Art History with Marxist Restrictions 11. Cultural Backwardness and Economic Backwardness: How Can Horizontal Art History Tackle Socioeconomic Issues? 12. Horizontal Art History: Endangered Species 13. Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Art in the Perspective of Horizontal Art History PART IV: Alternatives to Horizontal Art History 14. Allegories of Orientation 15. From Horizontal Art History to Lateral Art Studies? 16. Why Horizontal Art History Cannot Escape Computation 17. Simultaneous Avant-Gardes and Horizontal Art Histories: Avant-Gardes Outside of the Canonic Narrations