French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Rieber (ed.), Thinking Art, Thinking History
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Audrey Rieber (ed.): Thinking Art, Thinking History

Paris, L'Harmattan, 2014, 174 pp. With a photo section.

ISBN 978-2343033259; Retail price: €19

Published with the support of eikones NFS Bildkritik Basel and the National Book Centre

Thinking about art within history is today an essential approach in the philosophy of art, art history, and museology. But is this approach really self-evident? What are the modalities of placing art within historical temporality? The essays collected here examine, from an epistemological perspective, the categories through which art and history are usually understood. Furthermore, because thinking about art and history is not merely a matter of understanding the former through the lens of the latter, these essays also aim to explore how thinking about history through and from the standpoint of art fosters a philosophical reworking of our conventional conception of time.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Audrey Rieber…………………………………………………….........………………………p. 7

The Objectification of the Subjective: Friedrich Theodor Vischer’s Concept of the Image

and the Foundation of Art History as an Empirical Aesthetic Science

Hubert Locher…………………………………………………..........……………...............p. 11

Art History Taken at Its Word

Jan Blanc……………………………………………..………………............……………....p. 27

Idolatry, Ideology, Iconology: Towards an Archaeology of Visual Studies

Ralph Dekoninck…………………………………………….............……...….............……p. 43

Baroque Taste as the Determination of a Style: Wölfflin, Deleuze

Anne Sauvagnargues……………………………………………………….............………..p. 53

Art History: A Paradigm for Thinking the Logic of the Cultural Sciences?

On the Epistemologies of Ernst Cassirer and Michel Foucault,
Muriel van Vliet………………………………………………………..........…………………..p. 75

Pictorial Logic and Religious Logic in the Late Work of Titian

Thomas Kisser.................................................................................................................p. 93

Schwitters’ Artistic Apparatus

Jean-Louis Déotte …………………………………………………………….........……….p. 111

Art and Time: Historical Categories Put to the Test of Prehistoric Art

Audrey Rieber …………………………………………………………………………..........p. 121

The Classical Ground

Clara Pacquet ………………………………………………………......….……………….. p. 141

List of Illustrations…………………………………………………....………………..…p. 157

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………….......…………….p. 159

Table of Contents………………………………………………………….................……p. 161

This collective volume addresses central debates within the philosophy of art, art history, and museology by questioning how aesthetic objects are situated within historical temporality. Rather than treating history as a neutral background for artistic production, the contributors investigate how visual works actively challenge and reshape conventional notions of historical time. Drawing on rigorous epistemological analysis, the essays examine foundational concepts in aesthetics and historical method, offering fresh perspectives on the ways human culture conceptualizes its own past and present through visual creation.

Edited by Audrey Rieber and featuring contributions by scholars such as Hubert Locher, Jan Blanc, and Anne Sauvagnargues, the book engages with major figures and traditions in German and French thought, including Ernst Cassirer, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze. It serves as an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, and advanced readers in art history, philosophy, and visual studies who seek to deepen their understanding of the theoretical frameworks governing cultural science and historical interpretation today.