Somewhere Between Art History and Phenomenology - Refractions by Michael Ann Holly Hardcover

About the Book

Brings together art history and philosophy to explore the wonder of early modern European works of art in unusual critical readings

Book Synopsis

Michael Ann Holly is fascinated by a silent route rarely chosen in the historical and critical history of art: the poetic possibility of phenomenology.

Selecting early modern paintings by Bellini, Patinir, Dürer, Rembrandt, Aertsen, Breughel, and Sassetta, she imagines what a range of classical phenomenologists in the twentieth century might quietly contribute to the understanding of these canonical works of art. This special brand of philosophy dares to think about what is whispered, hidden, concealed or veiled by a prosaic exchange with objects and images. The shift today from epistemology to ontology has resulted in a renewed attention to the animacy of objects.

Through this (re)reading, and often offering a very personal account, she asks - how might we construe art history differently by intimating the magic of painting, the silence and wonder beneath words?

Michael Ann Holly is Starr Director Emerita of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute.

Review Quotes

In these highly personal, richly evocative meditations, effortlessly moving back and forth between philosophy and visual art, Michael Ann Holly thinks out loud about painting. Her mind richly stocked by reading of Bachelard, Gadamer, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Panofsky, this tightly woven book is as readable as a great spy novel.--David Carrier, author of Philosophical Skepticism as the Subject of Art: Maria Bussmann's Drawings (2022)

No one writing art history, theory, or criticism is like Michael Holly. Even though she has worked for years at the professional center of the discipline, she has carefully nourished a line of thinking that leads toward something different. Here you'll find a voice like Thomas Merton or Simone Weil, at once aware of contemporary philosophy and attuned to an inner voice. This is a lovely meditation on the wonder of painting, blending "intellectual inquiry and individual insight," mingling mid-20th century phenomenology with the "solitude, silence, and solace" of 15th and 16th century painting. The book is a tonic for a discipline often overheated with the current moment.--James Elkins, School of the Art Institute of Chicago