Dr Great Art, Episode 13: "The Nine Arts and the Nine Muses"

Dr Great Art Episode 13: Nine Arts and Nine Muses
There are traditionally Nine Muses and Nine Arts, frequently linked to one another. This is my attempt to concoct a fresh, contemporary version of this system for no darn reason other than pure, cultural fun.
http://drgreatart.libsyn.com/episode-13-nine-arts-and-nine-muses

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Here is the script (NOT a transcript as I change elements while recording).


Dr Great Art Podcast Thirteen
"The Nine Arts and the Nine Muses "

Hi this is Mark Staff Brandl, with the thirteenth "Dr Great Art" brief podcast. I hope you enjoy it and come back for each and every one.

Today we have a little arcane fun.
"The Nine Arts and the Nine Muses "

There are traditionally Nine Muses and Nine Arts, frequently linked to one another. My ex-Latin professor Dr Clemens Müller helped me with a weird idea I had, to concoct a fresh, contemporary version of this system for no darn reason other than pure, cultural fun.

In Greek mythology, the Muses are nine goddesses who personify fields of artistic endeavor. They are used in modern times to refer to inspiration, often with creators half-jokingly referring to their own personal artistic muse, as if they were a form of quirky guardian angel with endless numbers but unpredictable demands. In addition, the word amuse has its roots in their name.

The number of Muses began as three, quickly expanded to four and finally, still in ancient Greek times, to nine. The Muses were not assigned standardized divisions of poetry/song until late Hellenistic times. The assignments themselves were not completely hard and fast even then. Apparently, in the 19th century, that age of grand systemizing, various "duties" and forms of art were assigned to them, with which they are now identified, although there are several versions of the system.

Likewise, traditionally, there is a numbered list of the Arts. The number itself has varied widely, from five to nine, generally. Originally they were all versions of poetry and literature, with the addition of dance, comedy (theatre), tragedy, and usually history and astronomy. To the ancient Greeks, all forms of literature were forms of poetry, and therefore of music, as poetry was sung. Ricciotto Canudo, an Italian film theoretician living in France, claimed in 1911 that film was the sixth art. Later, Canudo renumbered his list, in the article Reflections on the Seventh Art, making film the seventh. Then, in 1964 Claude Beylie, (Beh-lee) a leading French film academic, said that comics were the ninth art, as Beylie felt that television was the eighth.

As I said above, the Muses, usually nine, were often assigned art forms, especially in the 19th century. This activity began to cross with that of numbering the arts to produce various strange and enchanting lists. One common one was the following:

Calliope was the muse of epic poetry. Clio was the muse of history. Erato was the muse of love poetry. Euterpe (Evterpeh) was the muse of music. Melpomene was the muse of tragedy. Polymnia was the muse of sacred poetry. Terpsichore was the muse of dance. Thalia was the muse of comedy. Urania was the muse of astronomy.

However, nowadays it is usually different — we see history and astronomy as sciences, so Clio and Urania have to get other jobs. Additionally, we see all poetry as one art form, so Calliope, Erato and Polymnia have overlapping functions. We also think theatre is one thing, not comedy and tragedy as separate, so Thalia and Melpomene have to work together.

Taking into account current divisions, utilizing Clemens' vast knowledge (he is also a scholar of ancient Greek), thus considering the meanings of the Greek names of the Muses, here is my list, for our Postmodern times:

Dr Great Art Version

The Nine Arts and Nine Muses

1) painting (including drawing and photography) — Polymnia
2) sculpture (including installation) — Clio
3) theatre — Melpomene
4) architecture — Urania
5) music — Euterpe
6) dance — Terpsichore
7) literature — Calliope
8) cinema ("moving images" in whatever technological format,
so also TV, video, etc.) — Erato
9) comics (now universally called the ninth art, the only really fixed
"number term" nowadays, and the most recent) — Thalia

Some notes:
Polymnia, all painting is somehow sacred, celebrates vision; her name means "many hymns," but is not exclusively sacred, it also means "many songs of praise," "many paeans," "many expressions of joy." That's painting to me. Drawing as an aspect of painting is clear, but also photography is, I believe, indeed photo-graph-y, i.e. "drawing with light," thus a form of painting.

Clio, sculpture was originally born of works of commemoration, seeking "monumental presence." A solid remembrance, related to Mneme, the unnamed precursor of the Muses, the Muse/goddess of memory. Clio's name is from the root meaning "recount" or "make famous".

Melpomene, theatre, because tragedy is clearly now the queen of drama. There is an enduring tradition of paintings of famous actresses posed as Melpomene.


Urania, architecture, ---" heavenly measure," mathematics embodied, is now more architecture than astronomy.


Euterpe, music, she keeps her original job, which was one of the few rather fixed points, and her name means rejoicing/singing well, singing with delight, to please well.


Terpsichore, dance, she too keeps her traditional assignment, and her name fits it well ("delight of dancing").

Calliope, literature, because literature, whose queen is nowadays the novel, was all born of epic poetry; "beautiful-voiced," "beautiful speaking."

Erato, film/cinema, well, you know --- love stories, eroticism, reigns in movies; even the fact that "eros" implies a more superficial form of love seems appropriate; one of her sites was a pilgrimage place for star-crossed lovers in ancient times; her name means something close to "lovely."


Thalia, (meaning “blooming,” "flourishing," the amused muse), comics/sequential art, because the term for comics in most languages (incl. comics, funnies, manga, etc.) is a form of "comic story" or "amusing art."

Of course, I must add, the numbering is not intended to be historical, moreso to relate to generally occurring or earlier such lists. The first seven arts on our list all "began" united, and furthermore united with religion and magic. "Ur-humans" painted themselves and their clothes and walls (painting), carried and wore masks and fetishes and props (sculpture), in a sacred space or shelter (architecture), while dancing to music which told stories (dance, music and literature), usually acted out (theatre) in order to worship (religion) and affect the natural or spiritual world (magic) and so on. They then slowly divided into constituent parts.

The last two are combinations. Cinema photograhs theatre, in a way. Comics is the mongrel child of literature and drawing. So both are painting mixed with another form. TV is only a technological variation on film, and not much of its own thing yet anyway. Computer (so-called digital) forms in the future are also only technical variations, not essential ones. If it moves it's cinema (or animation, a form of cinema borrowing heavily from comics). If it's still, it's a form of painting/photography/drawing. Yes, a piece of code in itself is almost math, but a piece of pigment in itself is dirt, not painting. Interactive is indeed a new dimension, but I suspect that is philosophically a widening of painting, if static, or cinema, if moving. It will usually also be sequential, yet multistranded, thus I would put it under Thalia.

That was "The Nine Arts and the Nine Muses"

Thanks for listening. That was podcast number 13. If you wish to hear more cool, exciting and hopefully inspiring stuff about art history and art, come back for more. Also I, Dr Mark Staff Brandl, artist and art historian, am available for live custom Performance-Lectures. In English und auf Deutsch.

I take viewers inside visual art and art history. Entertainingly, yet educationally and aesthetically, I analyze, underline, and discuss the reasons why a work of art is remarkable, or I go through entire eras, or indeed through the entirety of art history, or look at your desired theme through the lens of art history. The lectures often take place with painted background screens and even in my painting-installations. most recent ones were on the image of Social work in Art History, "Kunstgeschichte in Schnelldurchlauf, Sozialarbeit in der Kunst," Self-Portraits by Artists from Prehistoric through Postmodern Times“, and the entire History of Postmodernist Art from 1979 through today.

You can find or contact me at
www.drgreatart.com/

book me at www.mirjamhadorn.com
or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagra

Dr Great Art Podcast Episode 12, Why 'Dr Great Art'?

A very short 4 minute episode concerning how this podcast, the accompanying performance-lectures in painting-installations, and indeed the art historian and artist Mark Staff Brandl himself came to be called 'Dr Great Art.'
http://drgreatart.libsyn.com/episode-12-why-dr-great-art

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Here is the script (NOT a transcript as I change elements when recording).


Dr Great Art Podcast Twelve
"Why Dr Great Art?"
Hi this is Mark Staff Brandl, with the twelfth "Dr Great Art" brief podcast. I hope you enjoy it and come back for each and every one.

Today we have a very short Artecdote, the shortest till now, about the name of this podcast and the project of which it is a part.

Why the Name? Why Dr Great Art?

"Dr Great Art," the name of this project, or indeed for me, arose out of witticisms a few students of mine made. As I teach "from the hip," usually the entire survey of Art History, and in 5 various programs, I do not always immediately know exactly how far into history I made it in the last class session. Of course I have extensively planned where we are supposed to get to, as I have so little time to cover the whole survey (usually between 30 to 35 sessions for about a minimum of 40 major periods, epochs, movements). But some classes go slower, or more quickly as we get into interesting discussions.

Therefore, I am known to ask at the beginning of class, "WHEN are we?"

One student found this reminiscent of the famous British time-travelling science-fiction character Dr Who. She commented that I was a "Dr When." The class and I laughed.

Others joined in, and, as they also know I have an interest in comics, suggested that I was more like Dr Strange or Dr Fate, thus "Dr Art."

Finally, a few others revealed that they most appreciated that I helped them enjoy what was great, or not, in art. This reminded me of the wonderful radio and live concert programs on music by Rob Kapilow titled "What Makes It Great," which I often promote. This is INDEED my goal, in teaching, in my Performance-Lectures in Painting-Installations, and in these podcasts --- to make art history interesting, exciting, and useful today.

The students thus settled on me being "Dr Great Art." So, as egocentric as it may sound, I do not mean I personally am great, although I hope so, but that the works I highlight are. Or maybe not. I point out WHY works of art are great, or why not, and offer criteria for that, and passion as well. If you don't like or understand art, then you haven't met me.

Dr Who Music

That was "Why Dr Great Art?"

Thanks for listening. That was podcast number 12. If you wish to hear more cool, exciting and hopefully inspiring stuff about art history and art, come back for more. Also I, Dr Mark Staff Brandl, artist and art historian, am available for live custom Performance-Lectures. In English und auf Deutsch.

I take viewers inside visual art and art history. Entertainingly, yet educationally and aesthetically, I analyze, underline, and discuss the reasons why a work of art is remarkable, or I go through entire eras, or indeed through the entirety of art history, or look at your desired theme through the lens of art history. The lectures often take place with painted background screens and even in my painting-installations. most recent ones were on the image of Social work in Art History, "Kunstgeschichte in Schnelldurchlauf, Sozialarbeit in der Kunst," the image of the dog in Art History, and the entire history of Postmodernist Art from 1979 through today.

You can find or contact me at
www.drgreatart.com/
book me at www.mirjamhadorn.com
or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Dr Great Art Podcast episode 11, "Syncretism, Easter, Mongrel Art"

The newest Dr Great Art podcast, Episode 11 ! Syncretism, Easter, and Mongrel Art! Syncretism is the blending, layering and uniting of different beliefs of various schools of thought. Easter is the holiday most evidencing syncretistic thought. Mongrel Art is a syncretistic form of art. Democratic Art syncretistically involves people outside the field of art in artistic processes.

http://drgreatart.libsyn.com/episode-11-syncretism-easter-mongrel-art

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Here is the script (NOT a transcript as I change elements when recording).


Dr Great Art Podcast Eleven
"Syncretism, Easter, Mongrel Art"

Hi this is Mark Staff Brandl, with the eleventh "Dr (Great) Art" brief podcast. I hope you enjoy it and come back for each and every one.

As it is shortly after Easter at the time of initially podcasting this, today we have an Artecdote concerning something that makes Easter my favorite holiday, AND indeed has to do with where I think art should go!

"Syncretism, Easter, Mongrel Art"

Let me first define and explain Syncretism. It is the combining of different beliefs, blending practices of various schools of thought, or the like. Blending. Layering. It involves the merging or assimilation of several originally separate traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting or perhaps better said creating an overriding unity in an inclusive approach. Syncretism also occurs in expressions of arts and culture, (though sometimes there confused with eclecticism) as well as politics.

The word is from Modern Latin syncretismus, drawing on Greek synkretismos, meaning "Cretan federation". Plutarch in the 1st century CE wrote an essay on "Fraternal Love," citing the example of the Cretans, who reconciled their differences and came together in alliance when faced with external dangers.

Some modern African-American religions have evolved specifically out of Syncretism, a combination of traditional, animistic beliefs with Christianity resulting in religions such as Rastafarianism, Santeria, and Voodoo. Religious syncretism can also be found in other religious systems such as Unitarianism, and various New Age mixes.

Syncretism is now the term for combining different, often contradictory beliefs and practices. For Example and to my point here? The Easter Bunny came from earlier, so-called 'pagan' religions.

What is Easter?

Easter is calculated as the first Sunday after the paschal full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is the following Sunday. The holiday can occur anywhere between March 22 and April 25.

Easter is the holiday that celebrates and commemorates the central event of Christian faith: the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his death by crucifixion.

But where do bunnies and eggs and all that come into this?

There have always been celebrations of the arrival Spring; the awakening of life around us. In many periods, this was also the New Year instead of January 1st, which make more emotional sense to me!

Spring. new life, the return of life, fertility, resurrection. Easter is a holiday uniting tons of references to this beautiful fact.

Can't understand the bunny? Well, think about it, What a rabbits particularly famous for doing a lot of? And I don't mean eating carrots! That's fertility. They are known for their constant sexual activity.

The egg is a symbol of birth, obviously, as well! Even early Christians used it as a symbol of the rebirth of humanity, likening the shell to the tomb from which Christ arose. But the symbol is far simpler and earlier than that!

Around this time of the year, Facebook and Twitter and Co. get filled with rather spurious claims about Easter coming directly and solely from the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, goddess of fertility, sex, but also war. Let me put that to rest. There are several elements that come from her, but not her alone, and even more elements from other early religions --- but that is the joy of syncretism. We can pile on and merge ALL these wonderful references!

Astarte (another goddess, or another name for the middle Eastern fertility goddess) was, in some versions of the myth indeed "hatched" from an egg!

There are several theories concerning the origin of the word Easter itself that are more credible than the Ishtar theory. One is that Easter got its name from Anglosaxon Eostre (eee stra or uuu stra), a Germanic goddess who was celebrated around the time of Passover/Easter every year. Others contend that the word Easter ultimately derives from the Latin phrase in albis, related to alba ('dawn' in Spanish and Italian). In Old High German, in albis became eostarum, which eventually became Ostern in modern German and Easter in English.

However, the French word for "Easter" is Pâcques (pahk, a with circumflex), based on the Latin and Greek Pascha, meaning "Passover." We will get to Passover soon.

First, other fertility/Spring goddesses are in the syncretistic mix in various ways, unfortunately I do have the time to enumerate all the cool elements they loaned us, but here are their names:

Aphrodite, Ashtoreth from ancient Israel; Astarte, as said, from ancient Greece; Demeter from Mycenae; Hathor from ancient Egypt; Kali, from India; and Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility. All GODESSES as you will note! That too, is VERY important. Woman fit the season far more than men, aesthetically and symbolically.

For Jesus himself, Yeshua ben Yosef, and his followers, probably none, or very little, of such traditions mattered. they were celebrating Passover or Pesach the very important, biblically derived Jewish holiday.

Passover is the commemoration of the Hebrew people's liberation by God from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus. By the way, this event would have taken place at about 1300 BCE.

Passover is a spring festival which during the existence of the Jerusalem Temple was connected to the offering of the "first-fruits of the barley", barley being the first grain to ripen and to be harvested in the Land of Israel.

Many people assume that Jesus’ Last Supper was a Seder, a ritual meal held in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Three out of four of the canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) link the Last Supper to the Passover Seder. So for Jesus and early Christians, Easter was Passover.

As an aside here, I want to draw a distinction between eclecticism and syncretism in the philosophical and psychological senses. Eclecticism is a word best-suited to describing practices that have been formed by careful selection. A kind of purposeful collage. An eclectic person surveys different doctrines or practices and picks elements from them based on a criteria they have established.

Eclectics are often contrasted with systematics, individuals who believe that their school of thought or therapy's doctrines must be accepted in their entirety and alone. Eclectic art or music can be quite thrilling admixtures of, say, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Folk and Psychedelia as in early Spirit or Traffic, but it can also yield works lacking originality, superficial melanges such as much soft Jazz-Rock of the 80s.

Syncretism, on the other hand, refers to a practice of truly uniting different doctrines or practices with each other.

One of these in art, I call 'Mongrel Art,' which I have referred to in a past podcast.

Mongrel artists are against purism, finding it morally and politically questionable, a trope of oppression and racism --- too much inbreeding. Mongrel Art involves a syncretistic unity of a variety of artforms, even vernacular and "fine" ones together, yet does not eschew traditional disciplines, seeking instead to revitalize and transform them.

A related term 'creolization,' beyond Creole culture, now anthropologically describes any coming together of diverse cultural traits to form new ones, a complex process of cultural borrowing and lending.

I refer to this in art as 'mongrel,' affirmatively reappropriating an old insult. Cross the border, lose that gap, interbreed. My own art is part of this, because it unites painting, drawing, installation, sign-painting, sequential art (Comics), and even performance-teaching. Other artists doing this include Andrei Molotiu, Tom Sanford, Christa Donner, Raoul Deal, Gajin Fujita, Stefano Pasquini, Andy Gühl and many more.

Another art idea is related to this. Democratic Art. This term was formulated by the artist team of Alex Meszmer and Reto Müller.

Democratic Art generally uses public space, yet goes beyond traditional Public Art. It reacts to social areas outside the art system. It opens the art system and deliberately involves people outside the field of art in artistic processes. Democratic Art aims for discussion, wherein artists understand themselves as participating active members of society, as citizens actively participating in democracy, seeking integration instead of exclusion, interacting between art and society. The public and not the art market nor art bureaucracy determine its value. Democratic art needs the support of a democratic system in order to come into being. This is an syncretistic extension of Social Practice Art and includes Meszmer/Müller, Pau Delgado, HR Fricker, Rosalie Schweiker, Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre, and more.

Please contact me if you feel your art too is linked to Mongrel Art and/or Democratic art --- and is syncretistic! I would love to see it!

That was "Syncretism, Easter, Mongrel Art"

Thanks for listening. That was "Dr (Great) Art" podcast number 11. If you wish to hear more cool, exciting and hopefully inspiring stuff about art history and art, come back for more. Also I, Dr Mark Staff Brandl, artist and art historian, am available for live custom Performance-Lectures. In English und auf Deutsch.

I take viewers inside visual art and art history. Entertainingly, yet educationally and aesthetically, I analyze, underline, and discuss the reasons why a work of art is remarkable, or I go through entire eras, or indeed through the entirety of art history, or look at your desired theme through the lens of art history. The lectures often take place with painted background screens and even in my painting-installations. most recent ones were on the image of Social work in Art History, "Kunstgeschichte in Schnelldurchlauf, Sozialarbeit in der Kunst" and the entire history of Postmodernist Art from 1979 through today.

You can find or contact me at
www.drgreatart.com/

book me at www.mirjamhadorn.com
or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Dr Great Art New Podcast, Episode 10: "Why Art History?"

The newest podcast episode (Nr. 10)! Dr Great Art: "Why Art History!" What are the lessons art history can teach us? The lessons of art history are that they are lessons. That is a tautology, but an illuminating one worth elaborating upon. It is necessary to know history as personal empowerment for artists: to test the present with the often surprising facts of the past, to note how and why "official" history has often changed; second, to discover one's own personal, vital ancestry; and finally, in order to criticize and change art history.
http://drgreatart.libsyn.com/episode-10-why-art-history

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Here is the script (NOT a transcript as I change elements when recording).

Dr Great Art Podcast Ten
"Why Art History?"

Hi this is Mark Staff Brandl, with the tenth "Dr (Great) Art" brief podcast. I hope you enjoy it and come back for each and every one.

Today we have a short Artecdote. Why Art history? What good is it?

Why Art History? What are the lessons art history can teach us? In short, Historia est vitae magistra. (History is the tutor of life.)

The lessons of art history are that they are lessons. That is a tautology, but an illuminating one worth elaborating upon. The phrase "learning from (art) history" is often mouthed, yet mostly no longer believed, and is even actively gainsaid by artworld pundits. It is necessary to know history as personal empowerment for artists: first, to test the present with the often surprising facts of the past, to note how and why "official" history has often changed, in order to put temporary claims of omniscience into perspective; second, to discover one's own personal, vital ancestry; and finally, in order to criticize and change art history.

Now and then, curators have suggested to me that the old chestnut of hope for artists, being discovered in the future although unknown or underappreciated now, is no longer possible. They also say that those now in positions of power know best and indeed know everything, right now; there is a consensus of what is important and that agreement is accurate and everlasting. Of course, such people do not express this thought as candidly as I have here; rather, they indirectly portend that all information is known and under their control, pronouncing such statements as, "Well, discoveries of unknown artists can't happen anymore, because of mass media (or the school system, or the pervasiveness of information, or whatever). All truly remarkable art would come to my attention."

Philosopher Arthur Danto called this stance "Glimcher’s Theorem." It is named after a gallerist who claimed that "there are no unrecognized artists; that all deserving work receives attention; that the market always gets it right," as critic Raphael Rubenstein explains this smug notion. Such a conviction conveniently excuses lack of knowledge of anything not already pre-chewed by one’s colleagues – a vicious circle of self-justification attempting to pass as reasoning. Looking back even a few short years at art magazines, catalogues of award winners and the like, one finds vast arrays of the disappeared. As Rubenstein goes on to say in the same article, "no victory is forever; critical reputations fluctuate.... We can therefore be certain that some – if not most – of the artists who are today enshrined ... will be consigned to deep storage and market oblivion...."

Artists in particular should learn art history. Such knowledge does not give rise to fear, to a burden of the past, as is frequently fretted by artists, but rather the opposite. One has more of a burden of the past when one knows nothing of history. A vaguely threatening cloud hangs over your thoughts and your work. When you know it you can respect it by wrestling with it.

Artists develop their own, perhaps idiosyncratic, inheritance by knowingly, actively re-writing the timeline. Creators are able to discover their preferred precursors, find their own artistic fathers (and fortunately, ever increasingly, mothers). The friendship and conversation with the dead that Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset saw in history allows creators to find as much sustenance in, say, Goya as in their contemporaries. Yet such conversance also imparts opportunities for antithetical, critical historical and cultural awareness.

Furthermore, knowledge of art history empowers artists in that it reveals lies currently foisted upon them as the mendacity that they are.

Some proof of the surprises of history? Consider the case of Carlo Maratta (1625-1713). He respected Raphael, perhaps too much, lacking any passion of his own. His great achievement was to be a friend of Giovanni Bellori, "a writer ten years older than himself, and the dictator of art theory of his age." Bellori wrote about artists who he claimed were the most important of his day. Some he named are indeed still treasured. However, he left out Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini and was thoroughly scandalized by Caravaggio, attempting to discredit him in every way possible, including the use of a purposefully insulting portrait etching of Caravaggio in his book. Bellori began a life of Maratta, left incomplete at his death, wherein he suggested that art had reached its highest summit in Carlo Maratta. Maratta was indeed highly popular among cognoscenti of his time. In my eyes, and those of most viewers today, he was a pedantic producer of dreary, orthodox art emphasizing then-"correct" notions. Ring any bells?

Another historical example is Johannes Vermeer, known as Jan Vermeer. He was a barely successful provincial painter in his lifetime, but, shortly after his death, was ignored for two hundred years. In the mid-nineteenth century, art critic Thoré Bürger published an essay attributing paintings to him and bringing Vermeer back onto the art historical stage. Since that time the painter’s reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest painters.

So prominence and rank ain’t necessarily so. History is written by future scholars; those currently in power cannot force any reading upon unborn generations. We do not and cannot know their value judgments. We have no choice but to leave these future art scholars as much as possible and let them research and decide for themselves. They will of course be entangled in their own power-plays and mêlées with spurious taste-czars and so on, yet these factions will not be ours, nor even, most likely, derived in any way from our own cliques and coteries. Why should they be?

Thus, while it is true that no time period is truly objective, the disappearance of direct immediate gain, local political advantage and simple antipathy creates a situation of fresh appraisal and even of purposeful questioning of "compulsory" opinions. This amounts to a calculus of desire approximating circumstances resembling a more objective state. Seeing how this function has worked in the past and imagining it at work in the future is an important imaginative implement. Lessons as illustrations, examples, and tools – as possibilities for making analogies. As many thinkers, including Albert Einstein, have pointed out, the ability to make analogies and associative play are the keys to creativity.

Consequently, the lessons of history are neither retrograde nor conservative nor threatening. Indeed, the contraries of all of these are true. The lessons are touchstones and litmus tests for contemporary life and art – ways to glimpse around the blinders others attempt to enforce upon us in the present.

Artists: Learn art history. Contest it. Build your own. And thereby refuse the state of "given" to any perceived present. Every "is" contains many a "was" and many a "could be" or even "ought to be." History offers illustrations for use as tools to work on the present and build the future.

That was "Why Art History?"

Thanks for listening. That was "Dr (Great) Art" podcast number 10. If you wish to hear more cool, exciting and hopefully inspiring stuff about art history and art, come back for more. Also I, Dr Mark Staff Brandl, artist and art historian, am available for live custom Performance-Lectures. In English und auf Deutsch.

I take viewers inside visual art and art history. Entertainingly, yet educationally and aesthetically, I analyze, underline, and discuss the reasons why a work of art is remarkable, or I go through entire eras, or indeed through the entirety of art history, or look at your desired theme through the lens of art history. The lectures often take place with painted background screens and even in my painting-installations. My next one is on the image of Social work in Art History, "Kunstgeschichte in Schnelldurchlauf, Sozialarbeit in der Kunst."

You can find or contact me at
www.drgreatart.com/

book me at www.mirjamhadorn.com

or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram