Art History is a Special Way of Seeing

Hi! I am a high school student at The Nueva School in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I started this project because I wanted to make art history more accessible, vital, and personal.

How do distinguished scholars see great works of art?  Which works do they feel most personally and passionately connected to after a lifetime devoted to intimate study? 

I didn't know if scholars would be willing to share their thoughts for my project, and I am thrilled and deeply grateful that they did. Every professor I interviewed deepened and transformed my understanding of the works they spoke about: the ways in which masterpieces are a product of their cultures and periods and their eerie transcendence, as they speak to us through the veil of time.

“There’s a ghost of the artist in the picture,” Professor Koerner observes. These scholars help us see it. Their insights can change how one understands art, and art, in turn, can change how we see ourselves and our world. 

I am so excited to share their thoughts with you.