Writing with images, outside academia

ABSTRACT

The author presents reasons for doubting the uses of images in art history and art theory. Fine art images conventionally function as illustrations of arguments presented in text, which is counter to their putative value as the objects of scholarly attention. The author describes his reasons for leaving art history, and the essay concludes with excerpts from a forthcoming novel in order to show how images can have very different relations to their surrounding text, and how academic writing might be expanded to accommodate other voices.

KEYWORDS:

• Experimental writing
• contemporary writing
• novels
• art history
• art theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James Elkins

James Elkins is E.C. Chadbourne Professor in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His most recent book is The End of Diversity in Art Historical Writing: North Atlantic Art History and its Alternatives. The novel excerpted here, Weak in Comparison to Dreams, is forthcoming from Unnamed Press in Los Angeles.