Art + Archive - (Rethinking Art's Histories) by Sara Callahan (Paperback)

About the Book

Art + Archive examines how and why the archive became a hot topic in the artworld at the turn of the twenty-first century. The book connects the artworld's interest in archival terminology to a number of broader historical, technological, academic and philosophical contexts.

Book Synopsis

Art + Archive provides an in-depth analysis of the connection between art and the archive at the turn of the twenty-first century. The book examines how the archive emerged in art writing in the mid-1990s and how its subsequent ubiquity can be understood in light of wider social, technological, philosophical and art-historical conditions and concerns. Deftly combining writing on archives from different disciplines with artistic practices, the book clarifies the function and meaning of one of the most persistent artworld buzzwords of recent years, shedding light on the conceptual and historical implications of the so-called archival turn in contemporary art.

From the Back Cover

'Archive' has been one of the most persistent buzzwords in the international artworld since the turn of the twenty-first century. Art + Archive examines the meaning and function of the notion of the archive in art writing and practices from 1995 to 2015, making a valuable contribution to an under-analysed topic in the field.

The first part of the book outlines key texts about archive art, the interdisciplinary theories these build on and the specific meaning the archive comes to have when brought into the artworld. It shows how writing about archives by Michel Foucault and others lines up with the institutional theory of art established in the 1960s: both highlight the importance of institutional structures and point to a complex set of relations between history and critique. The second part of the book examines how the archive is used to make sense of different conditions and concerns relating to materiality, research, critique, curating and temporality.

Instead of approaching the archive as an already defined conceptual tool for analysing art, Art + Archive rethinks the so-called archival turn, showing how it is deeply embedded in issues relating to social, technological, philosophical and historical contexts.

About the Author

Sara Callahan is an art historian specialising in contemporary art and photography. She works at Stockholm University