DOI issue:
Nr. 1
DOI article:Orišková, Mária: Welcome to Capitalism: institutional dimensions of art history in post-communist Slovakia
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51715#0062
ŠTÚDIE ! ARTICLES
II.
ARS 45, 2012, 1
Welcome to Capitalism. Institutional Dimensions
of Art History in Post-Communist Slovakia'
Mária OŘÍŠKOVÁ
My páper will examine the social and institutional
dimensions of art history in post-Communist Slo-
vakia. Art history itself an often presumed neutral
autonomous science — though brutally contaminated
ideologically in the previous régime — struggles today
with several problems. Not only a lack of self-reflec-
tion on the discipline and its methods and a lack
of critical dialogue with past practices, but a new
socio-economic framework outline the set of ques-
tions that need to be asked.
Since institutional theory in Slovakia (and in
Eastern Europe) is by and large barely developed,
my text will also hâve the character of a probe of
the situation of institutions dealing with art in which
trained art historians work. My thoughts will be
structured around several institutions: state institu-
tions (muséums and universities), non-governmental
and commercial institutions. The concept of the
“dominant’, “residual’ and “emergent’ drawn from
Raymond Williams' can give us a basic framework
for understanding the complex and dynamic ways in
which culture opérâtes. Next to emerging éléments,
residual éléments from the dominant past hâve sur-
vived. By residual we refer to those practices that
are derived from an earlier stage of society. Residual
beliefs and practices remain dominant long after the
social conditions that made them dominant hâve
disappeared. Within the dominant there are also
This páper has been presented at the colloquium Art History
on the Disciplinary Map in Hast-Central Europe, organized by
the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown,
USA) and the Moravian Gallery in Brno, November 18-19,
2010.
emerging éléments. Emerging practices are those
that are being developed usually out of a new set
of social interactions as society changes. They are
often very different from and actively challenge
the dominant. Raymond Williams’ argument that
a culture is composed of a set of relations between
dominant, residual and emerging forms is a way of
emphasizing the uneven and dynamic quality of any
particular moment. Some institutions affirm and
maintain the dominant discourse from the previ-
ous régime, as well as traditional or even outmoded
practices; others are more subversive and critical and
attempt to undermine dominant discourses. My aim
is to explore particular institutional mechanisms, key
players and power relations.
I. Art Historiography and Its Institutions
The fundamental question, which I want to ask,
is how the science entitled art historiography is
constituted and how it distributes knowledge an-
der new conditions through concrète institutions.
The socialization of epistemology, which does not
disapprove of cognitive dimensions of science but
also acknowledges its institutional dimensions (it is
the social organization of science and its individual
disciplines), has also occurred only recently in social
sciences in Slovakia.2 Certainly, in art history we hâve
1 WILLIAMS, R.: Institutions. In: Culture. London 1981, pp.
33-56.
2 See SZAPUOVA, M. (ed.): Situovaná veda. Podoby a kontexty
tvorbypotynania. Bratislava 2009.
56
II.
ARS 45, 2012, 1
Welcome to Capitalism. Institutional Dimensions
of Art History in Post-Communist Slovakia'
Mária OŘÍŠKOVÁ
My páper will examine the social and institutional
dimensions of art history in post-Communist Slo-
vakia. Art history itself an often presumed neutral
autonomous science — though brutally contaminated
ideologically in the previous régime — struggles today
with several problems. Not only a lack of self-reflec-
tion on the discipline and its methods and a lack
of critical dialogue with past practices, but a new
socio-economic framework outline the set of ques-
tions that need to be asked.
Since institutional theory in Slovakia (and in
Eastern Europe) is by and large barely developed,
my text will also hâve the character of a probe of
the situation of institutions dealing with art in which
trained art historians work. My thoughts will be
structured around several institutions: state institu-
tions (muséums and universities), non-governmental
and commercial institutions. The concept of the
“dominant’, “residual’ and “emergent’ drawn from
Raymond Williams' can give us a basic framework
for understanding the complex and dynamic ways in
which culture opérâtes. Next to emerging éléments,
residual éléments from the dominant past hâve sur-
vived. By residual we refer to those practices that
are derived from an earlier stage of society. Residual
beliefs and practices remain dominant long after the
social conditions that made them dominant hâve
disappeared. Within the dominant there are also
This páper has been presented at the colloquium Art History
on the Disciplinary Map in Hast-Central Europe, organized by
the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown,
USA) and the Moravian Gallery in Brno, November 18-19,
2010.
emerging éléments. Emerging practices are those
that are being developed usually out of a new set
of social interactions as society changes. They are
often very different from and actively challenge
the dominant. Raymond Williams’ argument that
a culture is composed of a set of relations between
dominant, residual and emerging forms is a way of
emphasizing the uneven and dynamic quality of any
particular moment. Some institutions affirm and
maintain the dominant discourse from the previ-
ous régime, as well as traditional or even outmoded
practices; others are more subversive and critical and
attempt to undermine dominant discourses. My aim
is to explore particular institutional mechanisms, key
players and power relations.
I. Art Historiography and Its Institutions
The fundamental question, which I want to ask,
is how the science entitled art historiography is
constituted and how it distributes knowledge an-
der new conditions through concrète institutions.
The socialization of epistemology, which does not
disapprove of cognitive dimensions of science but
also acknowledges its institutional dimensions (it is
the social organization of science and its individual
disciplines), has also occurred only recently in social
sciences in Slovakia.2 Certainly, in art history we hâve
1 WILLIAMS, R.: Institutions. In: Culture. London 1981, pp.
33-56.
2 See SZAPUOVA, M. (ed.): Situovaná veda. Podoby a kontexty
tvorbypotynania. Bratislava 2009.
56