Cátedra del Prado.
The Artist as Art Historian

We will examine artists’ libraries to better understand their organizing principles and their function. Libraries are by no means a mere repository of knowledge; they are a model and a work of art. “Flaubert is to libraries what Manet is to museums,” said Michel Foucault. Is it possible to talk about the increasing convergence between these two spheres that results from artistic practices?

We will review different types of writing on the history of art by artists, from notetaking to the publication of finished works, among them catalogues raisonnés, historical and theoretical works, and monographs. We will visit the works in the Prado with Ad Reinhardt’s notes on Spanish paintings in hand. 

We will focus on oral transmission, from schoolroom teaching to conferences-performances, highlighting the difficult synch between words and images. How do we view Titian after hearing Robert Morris?

What are the régimes of historicity and methodological experiments carried out by artists when they become historians of art? What are the typical objects they choose upon becoming historians? Up to what point have these historians embarked upon avenues paved by the artists? And, finally, can we talk, today, about historians of art who read, write and speak as artists? 

The meta-painting “Las Meninas,” our final stop, allows us to understand how contemporary artistic practice has contributed to the history of art.