Friends of Art History Guest Lecture

We welcome Kim Sajet, the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum

What is art history for?

Since the dawn of civilization, people have turned to art to make sense of the world around them. From Pliny the Elder’s account of artistic progress to Xie He’s theory of “spirit resonance” and Giorgio Vasari’s biographical narratives of artistic genius, writers have theorized and systematized how art develops and why it matters. In 1764, Johann Joachim Winckelmann first coined the term “history of art,” helping to formalize the discipline and secure its place within the academy. What began as an effort to elevate the study of art eventually became a marker of cultural refinement.

Yet today, art history — along with many related humanities disciplines — finds itself increasingly marginalized on university campuses and in public life. Programs shrink, departments merge, and scholarship is asked to defend its relevance. If art history is fundamentally the study of visual communication, why has it struggled to communicate its own purpose? What is art history for?

In this talk, Kim Sajet, the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, suggests that the answer lies not in defending old hierarchies or rehearsing inherited canons, but in reimagining the purpose of studying art itself — less as a means of codifying culture or adjudicating status, and more as a way of creating community and advancing a shared sense of global humanity.

Photo credit: Valerie Hill