HomeLouis Marin and the material condition
Louis Marin and the material condition
Art History Supplement, September 2014
Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Abstract
This issue of Art History Supplement seeks to address issues regarding the work of French philosopher and art historian Louis Marin (1931 – 1992) and the material shift in art history. What do we actually mean by the study of material culture in history of art? One may support that the artefacts that are not considered art are part of the material culture. However, do we subsequently, if not intentionally, tend to separate the notions of art and material? Whilst, despite art being “mirror” or representation, it is primarily of a material nature.
Announcement
Argument
This issue of Art History Supplement seeks to address issues regarding the work of French philosopher and art historian Louis Marin (1931 – 1992) and the material shift in art history. What do we actually mean by the study of material culture in history of art? One may support that the artefacts that are not considered art are part of the material culture. However, do we subsequently, if not intentionally, tend to separate the notions of art and material? Whilst, despite art being “mirror” or representation, it is primarily of a material nature.
Combining the research of Bourdieu and Damisch on the “structure as representation,” Louis Marin had noted, among others, in his De la représentation (1994, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard) that:
“Structured and structuring, produced and producing, the “cultural” dispositions constitute, between material structures and social practises, behavioral and representational schemas or matrices that function as authentic mediations in the materialist dialectic of society. […]”[1]
And
[…]
“Thus the process through which pictorial practice is developed, structured by the habitus of representation, in a purely symbolic activity misrecognizing both its character as practise and its material conditions of possibility, is the consequence or the effect of that process of mutation through which economic structures become autonomous.”[2]
However, Marin’s starting point could be traced back to the reading of Foucault’s Cours de linguistique générale; to the best of my understanding, for the gap between sign and signifier / or the “real-world object.” One may also discuss on the relation between Marin and Roman Jakobson. Yet, if this schism, between material and representation (as meaning), exists, indeed, the problem, once again, remains to be sought in between. The poles of materiality and meaning are thus being constructed. How are these two poles being connected and under which mechanisms? Can we discover anew instances in history, where a change in the material-ity of an artwork generated an alteration also in its meaning – whether in its original setting and context, or not? This change in materialcould be made possible through natural causes or by human integration via restoration or conservation.
Furthermore, following this distinction between material and representation / meaning, if we are to approach them as separate beings in an artwork, there is, once again, a latent, in the epistemological sphere, distinction between theoretical discourse and practical application in art history.
[1] Louis Marin, On Representation, translated by Catherine Porter (2001), Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, p. 26.
[2] op.cit. p. 30.
Papers submitted must contain a minimum of 3,000 words. Authors are responsible for securing high-quality digital images and securing rights to reproduce them digitally.
Deadline for final submission of manuscripts: August 15, 2014
Manuscripts should ...
- be in English. The abstract should also be in English.
- be entitled
- be submitted in a Word document, ‘title.doc’, ‘title.rtf’, or ‘title.docx’, for instance.
- include images; emailed as separate files (see Submit an article). If compression required, use .rar or .zip, in order to be sent as attachments in one or more emails; or you could use any file-sharing services you prefer and send as the link for us to download them.
- be emailed to ArtHS Editor
- Please remember to include your Full name and/ or (delivery) address, in a separate file. DO NOT write any name in the first or any other page of your manuscripts.
Editorial procedures
ALL manuscripts are reviewed by the editor or members of the editorial board. Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible. The author is allowed to accept revision suggestions. The editor will re-review manuscripts that are accepted before publication. It is a goal of Art History Supplement to publish manuscripts shortly after the final submission. These would be the editorial procedures, unless otherwise stated in the call for manuscripts.
- Upon the receipt the editor will send the manuscript to editorial board for peer-reviewing
- The editor aims to inform contributors of a decision as soon as possible
- Decisions by the editor are final
- The editors reserve the right to edit the texts received.
IMPORTANT: Nor the editor nor the editorial board are copy-writers or copy editors, nor do they wish to play this role. Please, copy-edit your work before you send it to us; otherwise it might be published as it is.
Submitting an article
- Only unpublished manuscripts will be considered.
- Authors are requested to provide an abstract, in English,between 100 and 150 words as well as a word count for both the main text and the notes separately.
- A biographical statement of no more than thirty words could also be included.
- Manuscripts should be in English.
- There is a limit of minimum 3000 words to the contributions, without any existing maximum. Shorter contributions will feature [Short Note] in their title.
- Authors are allowed to use any reference system they wish, as long as they are consistent.
- Illustrations should be JPEG (.jpeg; .jpg) and TIFF (.tiff) file format; min. 300 dpi.
- Contributors are responsible for securing copyright on all images, texts or other materials. NB: The editor does not cover any expenses of any copyright material at any reason -nor is the editor legal responsible for doing the copyright clearance for you.
- Captions should include: Caption number, Artist, Title (in italics), date, medium, dimensions, Name of collection, City of collection, Other information such as “gift of . . . ,” accession number, etc. (if applicable). Copyright information is also obligatory.
- The author’s name should appear on a separate sheet, accompanied by the title of the article, the author’s institute affiliation, if any, mailing and email addresses, telephone and/or fax number(s).
Editor-in-chief
Ioannis Tzortzakakis
editor (at) arths.org.uk
Contributing editor
Annamaria Ducci
Subjects
Date(s)
- Friday, August 15, 2014
Keywords
- Louis Marin, art history, representation
Contact(s)
- Ioannis Tzortzakakis
courriel : editor [at] arths [dot] org [dot] uk
Reference Urls
Information source
- Ioannis Tzortzakakis
courriel : editor [at] arths [dot] org [dot] uk
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Louis Marin and the material condition », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, https://calenda.org/279744
