Art and Visual Culture. A Historical Introduction

Art history is an old and venerated discipline based on a historical and aesthetic understanding of works. In recent decades a different field of study has developed called visual culture. In this new and far broader field all types of pictures are studied and the perspective is often thematic. The theme might be identity, globalisation, power, gender and so on. Included here are the traditional forms of artistic expression, but also genres such as film, photography and advertising. Siri Meyer examines how this form of visual culture can be subject to influence from different quarters. From technologies such as the microscope, the telescope and the camera obscura. From Christianity and other religious creeds, but also from political ideologies such as capitalism, nationalism and orientalism. Among the book’s many themes, one in particular is emphasised: the art of seeing