Department of Historiography and Art Theory

The Department of Historiography and Art Theory was established in 2019 with the aim of renewing research that had not been systematically carried out at the Institute in recent decades. Its members are primarily concerned with Central European art theory and aesthetics of the 19th-21st centuries and with historiographical reflection on the methodological approaches of the field, also in relation to the impulses and methods of other humanities. Currently, the team focuses its research mostly on Central European thinking about the image and theory of art within the aesthetics thought of the first half of the 19th century, on the methodology of the so-called Vienna School of art history and its reception in the Czech lands, on the connections between art history and structural aesthetics or Marxist thought. Recently, the team has also been more concerned with research on art history in the context of institutions and infrastructures, as well as the historiography of conservation in the Central and Eastern European area during the Cold War. An attention is also directed towards newer theoretical challenges such as the impulses of visual culture theory, philosophy, or media theory and intermediality.

The most important event organised by the department is the international conference The Vienna School of Art History, which has already established its place at the centre of a network of researchers who explore thinking of prominent figures of the Vienna School of Art History and their followers within the contexts of various regions of (Central) Europe. It has been held biennially since 2019, with an edition of selected papers published regularly in the Journal of Art Historiography. A topic centred on the thought and work of Alois Riegl is currently being prepared for 2025: The Vienna School of Art History IV: für Riegl / gegen Riegl. Smaller, primarily interdisciplinary workshops are also an opportunity for methodological self-reflection and interdisciplinary discussion: Style and Poetics: History, Theory, Application (2019, in cooperation with the Institute for Czech Literature, CAS), or Mundus symbolicus or the World of Emblematics (2024, in cooperation with the Institute of Christian Art History, Charles University).

The members of the department also prepare and supervise translation edition ARS // Philosophia, Aesthetica, Theōria with theoretically and methodologically inspiring newer and canonical texts in the theory, aesthetics and philosophy of art, published by Academia press. After translations of texts by Heinrich Wölfflin (2020; Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe, 1915) and Arthur C. Danto (2021; After the End of Art, 1984), translations by Jonathan Crary (2024; Techniques of the Observer. On Seeing and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, 1990), an anthology of Aby Warburg's thought (2025; Articles, Essays, Notes and Lectures), and Renato Barilli (2025; Scienza della cultura e fenomenologia degli stili, 1991) are currently being published.

The reflection of the Czech historiography of the field also includes archival research and editions of published and unpublished texts (Josef Krása: The High Jump of Josef Krása), or research into the correspondence of the important representatives of the field (NAKI III projects: Network of Letters. The correspondence of intellectual elites in turbulent times of Bohemian/Czech history from the digital perspective and  Heritage and society in the Czech lands between 1900 and 1960: professional and personal strategies of heritage preservationists in the light of private correspondence).

Members of the department are also participating in discussions, workshops and conferences organized by other departments of the Institute, as well as in other projects (for example, a cross institution exhibition and publication project “… then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…” The Apocalypse and Art in the Czech Lands, 2023).