Concise, critical reviews of books, exhibitions, and projects in all areas and periods of art history and visual studies

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Theoretically Speaking . . .: David Carrier, Michael Ann Holly, and Andrei Pop in Dialogue

Scenario: The three former field editors for theory and historiography reflect on the state of the field(s) and try to place reviewing in the theoretical life of art history as it has been practiced historically—and as it is practiced today.

Andrei Pop: To start us off: theory and historiography strike some people, especially working art historians, as disembodied. Is there a vivid memory you have from your stint editing for caa.reviews, one that jumps... Full Review

March 2, 2020
C. D. Dickerson III, Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper
Bernini: Sculpting in Clay
Exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art 432 pp.; 437 color ills.; 35 b/w ills. Cloth $65.00 (9780300185003)
Exhibition schedule: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 3, 2012–January 6, 2013; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, February 3–May 5, 2013

[See the multimedia media review on Scalar.]

Thanks to a generous grant from the Mellon-funded Alliance for Networking Visual Culture in 2013, caa.reviews was able to complete a pilot project using the Scalar multimedia digital platform to create a “book” permitting its readers to experience virtually the 2012–13 exhibition Bernini: Sculpting in Clay (in its... Full Review

October 25, 2019
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Abstract Bodies and Otherwise: A Conversation with Amelia Jones and David Getsy on Gender and Sexuality in the Writing of Art History

On the heels of the recent publication of their books Otherwise: Imagining Queer Feminist Art Histories and Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender, Amelia Jones and David Getsy initiated a conversation about these books and the current state of and future directions for art history’s engagements with gender and sexuality.[i] The following dialogue was conducted by email over the course of the summer and... Full Review

February 16, 2018
Design History: The State of the Art
College Art Association
Introduction Design is a rich word. Its core meaning is a plan, so it refers by extension to evidence of the activity of planning, such as blueprints, technical drawings, and sketches on the backs of envelopes. However, it is also used to refer to the products of the activity of designing, such as designed objects, systems, and behaviors. Design history encompasses the study of design in order to find out about the past, and the study of the past in order to better understand... Full Review
November 16, 2016
The Getty Foundation
The Getty Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative (OSCI)
Los Angeles: Getty Foundation
The Getty Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative (OSCI) Art Institute of Chicago Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago https://publications.artic.edu/monet/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135470 Art Institute of Chicago Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago Full Review
October 6, 2016
Boris Charmatz: If Tate Modern was Musée de la danse?
Tate Modern
Exhibition schedule: Tate Modern, London, May 15–16, 2015
[See the multimedia version on Scalar.] Introduction: “If caa.reviews were performance.reviews?” This jointly authored review of Boris Charmatz’s If Tate Modern Was Musée de la Danse? (2015) inaugurates a new initiative, spearheaded by the editorial board of caa.reviews, to review... Full Review
September 8, 2016
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Boris Charmatz: If Tate Modern was Musée de la danse?
Tate Modern
Exhibition schedule: Tate Modern, London, May 15–16, 2015
[See the multimedia version on Scalar.] Museum Metaphysics: 20 Dancers for the XX Century and Dance’s Ontology in the Museum As I walked through Tate Modern’s “Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky: Pop 1957–67” gallery on May 15, 2015, I encountered Frédéric Seguette removing T-shirt after T-shirt in a performance of Jerôme Bel’s Shirtology (1997). Seguette’s performance was part of Boris Charmatz’s 20 Dancers for the XX... Full Review
September 8, 2016
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Boris Charmatz: If Tate Modern was Musée de la danse?
Tate Modern
Exhibition schedule: Tate Modern, London, May 15–16, 2015
[See the multimedia version on Scalar.] Unauthorized Performance in the Turbine Hall Boris Charmatz’s If Tate Modern Was Musée de la danse? transformed Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall into a space for the display of movement. (Previous inhabitations of Turbine Hall have had similar aims. An indicative list might be found in the series of installations that made up Tate’s Full Review
September 8, 2016
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Boris Charmatz: If Tate Modern was Musée de la danse?
Tate Modern
Exhibition schedule: Tate Modern, London, May 15–16, 2015
[See the multimedia version on Scalar.] Adrénaline: A Dance Floor for Everyone Adrénaline: A Dance Floor for Everyone, an open disco hour reminiscent of a pop-up dance club, emerged twice a day at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, under a shimmering giant disco ball. Led by the enticing sets of DJ Oneman and DJ Jonjo Jury,... Full Review
September 8, 2016
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Eddie Chambers
Reflections on African and African Diaspora Art
Re-Views: Field Editors’ Reflections, caa.reviews. College Art Association
Re-Views: Field Editors’ Reflections caa.reviews Today marks a historic moment for caa.reviews, because with our fourth installment of “Re-Views: Field Editors’ Reflections” the journal is acknowledging its commitment to reviewing scholarly books about African, African American, and African Diaspora art. No one is more responsible for this focus than field editor Eddie Chambers, who since July 2014 has tirelessly shepherded more than twenty reviews from commission to... Full Review
April 21, 2016