In Conversation: Art Is Not the Archive

Abstract

In our fall 2017 issue, art historian Alexander Nemerov explored a question of vital interest to this journal and its readers: How might we describe the relationship between artworks and archives? He applied this question to the case of nineteenth-century American painter John Quidor, whose historical and literary subjects scholar Ross Barrett has connected to the artist’s fervor for land speculation. Nemerov commended Barrett for deftly yoking Quidor’s art to his social context, supported by archival evidence. Yet Nemerov maintained that art can still be “a thing apart” from the social realm, marked by its “otherness” and thus not wholly explained by the archive. These ideas have sparked much debate among art historians, and so we invited a selection of them to respond with their own questions and case studies. The eleven texts featured here represent a variety of research areas and methodologies, and conclude with reflections by both Barrett and Nemerov.