Civilisation and its Critiques: An Art-Historical Perspective

13 March 2015
This panel discussion will reconsider the controversies surrounding the 1969 BBC series 'Civilisation', looking particularly at how criticisms of the conception of art and civilisation presupposed in that series have subsequently been negotiated within the discipline of Art History.

In 1969, Kenneth Clark's BBC series 'Civilisation: A Personal View' presented a very traditional British notion of civilisation to a wide and international public. It was sovereign, patrician and western, and it was framed around great works of art. From that point on, Clark's series became a touchstone for critiques of this limited conception of both civilisation and art, from John Berger's counter-series Ways of Seeing to other accounts that took up perspectives of class, gender and colonialism. 

The BBC's announcement of plans for a new series offers an opportunity to reconsider this crucial moment and look afresh at the unstable and geographically diverse way these critiques were negotiated within the discipline of Art History. Similar critiques were developed in other countries, but against the background of very different institutional, generational, historical and discursive conditions.

Speakers will give short papers on developments in the UK, France and Germany.

Speakers: 

• Hannah Feldman (Northwestern University, Art History); 
• Adrian Rifkin (Goldsmiths, Dept of Art); 
• Frederic Schwartz (UCL, History of Art)

The event is free and no registration is required