Manchester University Press - The ecological eye

In the popular imagination, art history remains steeped in outmoded notions of tradition, material value and elitism. How can we awaken, define and orientate an ecological sensibility within the history of art? Building on the latest work in the discipline, this book provides the blueprint for an 'ecocritical art history', one that is prepared to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene, climate change and global warming. Without ignoring its own histories, the book looks beyond - at politics, posthumanism, new materialism, feminism, queer theory and critical animal studies - invigorating the art-historical practices of the future.

Reviews

'The book is an important contribution to art history and visual culture. It provides a much-needed map for an "ecocritical art history", making accessible writing in not only art history but the environmental humanities overall.'
Professor Lisa Bloom, Scholar in Residence, Beatrice Bains Center, University of California, Berkeley

Introduction
Part I: Towards an ecocritical art history
1 The evolution of ecocritical art history
2 Art history in an expanded field: techniques, materials, land, energy, environments
3 Ecologies of feminism and the queer
Part II: The politics of nonhierarchy: anarchism, social ecology and art
4 Anarchist and social ecological roots
5 Art history and anarchism
6 Ecologies: political, cultural, green
Part III: Matter, ground and flesh
7 New materialism and the wisdom of the rocks
8 Art history as a posthumanities practice
9 Animalities and implantations
Conclusion: Paying attention: environmental justice and ecocritical art history
Bibliography
Index