James Elkins (art historian)
James Elkins is an American art historian and art critic. He is E.C. Chadbourne Chair of art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also coordinates the Stone Summer Theory Institute, a short term school on contemporary art history based at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Education
- BA, cum laude, 1977, Cornell University
- MFA and MA, 1984, University of Chicago
- PhD with honors, 1989, University of Chicago
Publications
Non-fiction
- The Poetics of Perspective
- The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing
- Our Beautiful, Dry, and Distant Texts: Art History as Writing
- On Pictures and the Words That Fail Them
- What Painting Is
- Why ''Are Our Pictures Puzzles? On the Modern Origins of Pictorial Complexity
- The Domain of Images
- Chinese Landscape Painting as Western Art History. Originally published in Chinese in 1999.
- Pictures of the Body: Pain and Metamorphosis
- How to Use Your Eyes
- Pictures and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings
- Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students
- Stories of Art
- Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction
- What Happened to Art Criticism?
- On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art
- Master Narratives and Their Discontents
- Six Stories from the End of Representation
- Art Critiques: A Guide
- What Photography Is
- The End of Diversity in Art Historical Writing: North Atlantic Art History and Its Alternatives''
As editor
- ''Artists with PhDs: On the New Doctoral Degree in Studio Art''
''Five Strange Languages''
- Book 1: Stories, Like Illnesses
- Book 2: A Short Introduction to Anneliese
- Book 3: Weak in Comparison to Dreams
- Book 4: Ghosts Are
- Book 5: ''An Inventory of the Dead''