This, for the time being, is my final entry in a series on art historian Michael Baxandall (1933–2008). The others are here: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. The series is in part a tribute. His work has had a sustained impact on my research–into artistic influence in transnational film practice, the…
Category: Art History Notes
The Art History of Michael Baxandall, Part 4: Against Interpretation
This marks the fourth in a series of posts on the writings of art historian Michael Baxandall (1933–2008). If previous entries have examined Baxandall’s thoughts, all related, on the critical history of style, the relation of language and culture to art-making, and the inferential work of the art historian, this piece addresses a very different…
The Art History of Michael Baxandall, Part 3: The Shapes of History
To direct attention to the artist’s market invites misunderstanding. There are those who resent any suggestion that the artist is not an absolute spirit pursuing his aesthetical way like a bird: they will read any proposition about the relation between artist and market as a coarse innuendo about artists following a style because it is…
Style and Process: A Note on Bresson and Surrealism
There’s a movement toward movements in Bresson commentary. Increasingly, critics and scholars like to position Robert Bresson’s cinema as part of several conscious trends in 20th century thought and fine arts, Surrealism in particular. I’ve contributed in my own small way to this project. In a recent blog, filmmaker/scholar Laura Ivins takes up Bresson’s Surrealist…
Reflections on Reflectionism: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (Peck, 2016)
I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is not necessarily a great documentary, but it is an essential one. I offer this assessment in the spirit in which the film’s subject, the great James Baldwin, himself engaged issues of culture, life, and race. He didn’t seek simple answers, consensus, or authority; he sought to stir cultural discussion and…
The Art History of Michael Baxandall, Part 2: What is Inferential Criticism of Art?
This entry continues a series of posts on the art historian Michael Baxandall (1933-2008). The first post commented on his 1971 book, Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial Composition, 1350-1450. Now I take on the mighty Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures (1985), which…
Zhou on Texting in Film and TV: On the Analysis of Local and Shared Problems
In a recent post, I argued that when trying to explain why movies look the way they do, it is vital to consider verifiable intentions and decisions. Filmmakers’ intentions, moment to moment decisions, goals and commitments–all of these lead to creative behaviors on the set, and these behaviors shape the final look of a film. I…
Reading Response: Schwabsky on Mannerism
Mannerism has long been an art-historical football. And here’s a recent effort to kick it in a new direction. The Nation‘s Barry Schwabsky argues (contra Clement Greenberg) that Mannerism passes the avant-garde “test” because a) Mannerist painters aimed to “expose the inadequacy of established taste” and in doing so they b) developed a kitschy approach (i.e., the paintings…
Art Historian Michael Baxandall on Film Studies (1996)
For years I’ve been a great admirer of the art historian Michael Baxandall. I’ve read every word he every published, and always wanted to have a conversation with him. Here’s one of the few things he had to say about film studies: “Yes, I keep looking at film studies, but it seems to me a…
Moving Patterns 