Lecture: How Do We Know? Evidence and Ambiguity in Art History | Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi

Lecture: How Do We Know? Evidence and Ambiguity in Art History | Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, Professor , Art History Department, Emory University

Assessing detailed information on meanings, uses, and contexts of so-called historical or traditional arts of Africa is challenging for a variety of reasons. Indirect rather than direct evidence often shapes much of what we know or think to know. In this lecture, Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi will draw on extensive research on African arts to probe what we think we know and how we think we know it. She will demonstrate that much of what we think we know is fragmentary or otherwise incomplete, and she will argue that an honest approach to knowledge production and dissemination entails an embrace of ambiguity. While Gagliardi focuses on African arts, the questions and considerations she raises are more broadly applicable to the study of arts from disparate times and places.
Sponsored by the Corcoran's Visiting Artists & Scholars Committee | Corcoran Art History

Host or Publisher Corcoran Art History Program