James Elkins
News:
New book! What Heaven Looks Like. Passed the 300,000 word mark on my work in progress. Writing every day! Please use the contact form to schedule lectures, studio visits, or seminars. I'm using Academia.edu as a message board. If you download something of mine that's posted there, send me a note: I'm always glad to answer questions. See Lectures page for my travel schedule.
I have decided not to find a publisher for The Impending Single History of Art. (Too many years spent pursuing academic publishers.) It's the last of my art history books, and the one with the most information about global art history. I'm going to be posting it in its entirety on this site and on Academia. The chapters are on Google Drive, so they're live and always up to date. Please send comments & criticism here.
Latest uploads:
The book Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?; the book How to Use Your Eyes; and an essay on the complicity between torture and formal analysis. (There is also a website with reviews of contemporary piano music.)
Live Writing Projects:
I am experimenting with writing live on the internet. These texts update live, and you can contribute to them & be thanked when the book is published. (1) What is Interesting Writing in Art History?, (2) Writing with Images. Other live writing projects are finished: Visual Worlds, and The Impending Single History of Art. Thanks everyone for contributing!
Why Art and Science Should be Allowed to Go Their Separate Ways
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An essay on reasons to mistrust claims that that (Western) artists have used science in their art, or that current art and science are linked.
What Does it Mean to be An Average Artist?
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An essay on the ordinary condition of most artists: being average, statistically normal, moderately successful--and not an outlier like Pollock.
Ten Reasons Why E.H. Gombrich Was Not an Art Historian
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A brief essay on E.H. Gombrich's relation to the discipline of art history, with reasons why he would not have considered himself an art historian.
There is No Such Thing as Outsider Art
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There is no such thing as "outsider art" because naive and untrained art has been a traditional accompaniment of modernism since its inception.
Against the Sublime
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An essay on the concept of the sublime in art, rehearsing the history of the postmodern sublime, and calling for a moratorium on its use.
Pictures and Tears
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A book about people who have had strong emotional reactions (including crying) looking at paintings, and about the relatively tearless twentieth century.
From Original to Copy and Back Again
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A brief essay on the sometimes overlooked continuum between the most original work and the most literal copy.
Art History and Computer-Generated Images
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An essay on the relation between Photoshop and the history of art, and a proposal for a book to be called The History of Photoshop.
