Magdalena Radomska

What Isn´t Orthodox Horizontal Art History

Horizontal art history, a concept developed by Piotr Piotrowski in a study published over a decade ago in Umění and the subject of numerous polemics, involves a method that is far from orthodox. As elaborated in Piotrowski’s last book (still unpublished in English) into what he calls alterglobalist art history, the concept emerges as having Marxism as its essential but always inconsistent background. Although in my text, focused on the polemics with Matthew Rampley, but also — with Piotr Piotrowski, I refer to his last book, the current study has a restricted focus as regards the overall reception of horizontal art history and its aftermath. This is partially due to the character of the present text, written as a response to the text by Rampley, and partially because I discuss the whole complicated complicated problem subject extensively elsewhere: both in the afterword to the book by Piotrowski and in my text discussing limitations of horizontal art history which is about to be published in the book on horizontal art history by Routledge. Therefore, by quoting the famous essay by György Lukács What is Orthodox Marxism, I attempt to frame both the concept of horizontal art history and the critical standpoint of Rampley with Marxism, that affirms unorthodoxy of Piotrowski’s method.

Magdalena Radomska: radomska@amu.edu.pl

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