Fictions of Art History

Addresses art history's complex relationships with fiction, poetry and creative writing. Examines art historians' viewing practices and modes of writing. How, the contributors ask, are we to unravel the supposed facts of history from the fictions constructed in works of art? -- Back cover. Entanglements. Weightless history: Faulkner, Bourke-White, and Eisenstaedt / Alexander Nemerov -- A novelist among artists: Gordon Burn and 'Young British Art' / Thomas Crow -- Philip Marlowe meets the art historian / Paul Barolsky -- The case of the errant art historian / Gloria Kury -- Not who you think I am. Face to face with fiction: portraiture and the biographical tradition / Caroline Vout -- 'I am not who you think I am': attributing the humanist portrait, identifying the art historical subject / Maria H. Loh -- Fictional deceptions: a true story / Joanna Scott -- The art-historical photograph as fiction: the pretense of objectivity / Ralph Lieberman -- Artists, stories, objects. 'The reality bodily before us': picturing the Arabian Nights / Marina Warner -- The ekphrastic O / Cole Swensen -- Anecdotes of the life of art history / Mark Ledbury -- The text is present / Marianna Torgovnick. edited by Mark Ledbury. A related conference, also titled 'Fictions of Art History, ' was held 29-30 October 2010 at the Clark. Includes bibliographical references.