In some cases material is added, in others it is taken away, yet all share the goal of changing your perspective. Each responded differently to our suggestion and the results are powerful and revealing. This litany of masters-which spans from Michelangelo and Rubens to Pollock and Rothko, etc.-is primarily comprised of white men whose voices dominate the narrative.īut there are art histories that fall outside this narrow lens.Īs we prepared for the Kerry James Marshall exhibition, we asked Regin Igloria, Billy McGuinness, Lynnette Miranda, Raven Munsell, Melissa Potter, Josh Rios and Anthony Romero, and Kelly Lloyd to alter a copy of Gardner’s Art Through the Ages according to what they thought was missing or left out of art history. The narrative of Western art history, as told through textbooks, is one in which some works are judged to be more significant so they gain value and appreciation as they age while others fade into obscurity. In publishing this book, Gardner identified a system that Kerry James Marshall later defined as one that catalogues the value of an artist’s work and sets expectations about what a successful work of art looks like. In doing so, she and the editors who have shaped the book since her death created a set of expectations about what makes a successful work of art and who is a “master.” She culled together artists and artworks that had been sanctioned by her peers and predecessors as masters and masterworks. Gardner’s book, however, is not a neutral history of the visual arts. The book was first published in 1926 and though it is not the first book on the history of art, it has become one of the most successful tomes on the subject and even after Gardner's death it continues to be revised and edited for classrooms around the world. ![]() Gardner’s Art Through the Ages was originally written by Helen Gardner, an art educator and lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as a resource for her students. A staple of any college student pursuing a degree in art or art history, each of these books has been altered and/or annotated by artists and art historians who, responding to Kerry's commentary on his practice, want visitors to question the artists, media, and geographic locations that are part of conventional art history, and what has been omitted from this history. In the lobby outside Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, there is a long, library-style table with several copies of the classic college textbook, Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. Detail of altered Gardner’s Art Through the Ages book, 2016 on the KJM interpretation project
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