Image and Background

About

This course is part of the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts's 2021 programme.

Course leader

Leon Kahane

Target group

open to anyone interested in fine arts

Course aim

Historiography is a continuous process. For an image to be classified iconographically, it needs to be placed in its historical context. Thus, the examination of an image, or any form of representation, means to know the circumstances of its origin.

Art cannot be created independently of or uninfluenced by its circumstances; self-evident as that may be for the retrospective consideration of art, just as it is self-evidently valid for the immediate present. We are in a moment of history where recognising facts and truths has to be defended arduously against arbitrary and unfounded assertions. For art (or the artist), this likewise entails orientation, classification and positioning within the multiplicity of icons, images and representations.

Students in this course consider the relation of history and its critical analysis of the present dynamics. In particular, they learn what role art and culture can assume in different contexts and what imputations and abuses it has to guard. In group and one-to-one discussions, we will discuss students' formal and thematic approaches.

On the one hand, the course aims to find out what meaning contemporary art positions entail and, on the other, to enable participants to develop methods for establishing, classifying and maintaining such a positioning more clearly.

*If necessary, the course may be held exclusively online.

Fee info