The Vienna School of Art History from the 1960s to the mid-1970s: the renewal of art history and the influence of art schools

Abstract

This article presents the hypothesis that art schools have enabled art history to digest the new definitions of art from the 1960s and overcome the methodological crisis diagnosed by Arthur C. Danto and Hans Belting; more concretely that the Viennese Kunsthochschulen served as laboratories for the experimentation of new art histories. To this end, the ways in which contemporary art was theorised and art history was practised at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst and at the Akademie der bildenden Künste will be studied. The relationship between the Institut für Kunstgeschichte at the University of Vienna and contemporary art will also be examined. By analysing the place of art schools in the history of art history, the research project, briefly presented in this article and intended to be developed over the next few years, aims to contribute to a better appreciation of the role of institutions, actors and networks in art historiography.