Annotation
The lecture provides an introduction to the history, theory, and methodology within the anthropology of art. It starts out by discussing terminological issues and the difference between art-historical and art-anthropological approaches.
After introducing earlier anthropological studies on art, the lecture focuses on key debates within this sub-discipline, including: differences between material culture and art, questions of agency, primitivism, aesthetics, and iconography, as well as art and technology. Following, newer art-anthropological research will be discussed in the context of art as a commodity, the collection and display of modern and contemporary art, art’s circulation in global art worlds, as well as the provenance and restitution politics of art.