The purpose of the project is to concentrate on the critical concepts in Estonian art history, their role in the vocabulary and meaning making within the field over the course of the two last centuries. Our focus is on the concept of style that has not been analysed from a critical historiographical perspective in local research, and its ideological, period- or genre-specific etc. meanings. We assume that ʻstyle’, along with several other concepts, has been atemporal in a way – it has traveled from one discourse to another, but acquired different weight and position each time. How do concepts and discourses react to temporal changes: ideologies, politics, the developments in the international field of art history or its neighbouring disciplines? How has ʻstyle’ shaped the meaning and value of artworks? We will select and analyse texts, exhibitions and cases of heritage construction in which the creative ʻpower’ of concepts and discourses is most visible.
Principal investigator: Krista Kodres
Senior research staff: Tiina Abel, Kristina Jõekalda, Kädi Talvoja
Other research staff: Liisa-Helena Lumberg, Mari-Liis Vanem (PhD students)
Duration: 2021–2022
Project type: EKA Research Grant, A6033UKK
Financed by the Estonian Academy of Arts
See in the Estonian Research Information System