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Karl Mannheim and Erwin Panofsky took Alois Riegl's concept of Kunstwollen as their point of departure in the development of the sciences of cultural interpretation. This article seeks to elucidate the very different readings of Riegl made by Mannheim and Panofsky, and to show how the sociological appropriation and transformation of the concept of Kunstwollen was central to the development of Mannheim's sociology of knowledge, and in particular to the analysis of ‘styles of thought’ in his classic study Conservative Thought (1927). The limited reception of Mannheim's synthesis of sociology and art history is interpreted in the intellectual context of Britain immediately after the 1939–45 war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the circumstances surrounding the first exhibition of Joseph Wright of Derby's epic contemporary history painting View of Gibraltar during the destruction of the Spanish Floating Batteries, 13 September 1782. This intensely dramatic depiction of siege warfare was the centrepiece of a one-man show, held by the artist at Robins's Rooms, Covent Garden, between April and June 1785, an exhibition staged in direct rivalry with the Royal Academy, of whom Wright had fallen foul two years earlier. It is argued that the iconography of the exhibition, in concert with a number of associated publications, deliberately highlighted the confrontations, contests and infighting between artists that were such a marked feature of the London art world of the mid-1780s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the innovative sequence of permanent historical displays created at the National Portrait Gallery under the directorship of Roy Strong in the late 1960s and early 1970s and establishes a series of contexts for them. It looks back to display at the gallery in earlier decades in order to examine how this reflected varying degrees of public engagement. This leads to an exploration of the place of Strong's displays within the cultural politics of the later 1960s, notably their relationship to the policies of Labour Minister the Arts, Jennie Lee. The final context is the development of a popular historical consciousness during the period, a phenomenon in which the visualization of history played a crucial role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the interconnected involvement between the arts in the twentieth-century. Painter Marie Laurencin's involvement with Guillaume Apollinaire; Collective nature and unity of the arts; Writers and artists' influence on each other.

The article examines the art historical spaces between the visual stereotypes to reconstruct the World War I by resurrecting artistic material called 'art from the front.' The artistic community, who participated in the War, did not forget their artistic activity. French artists believed that making art out of war was not only possible, it was a necessity. The 'art from the front' is inextricably linked to the ideologies of the homefront, the expectations of those left behind and the pre-war aims of the artist-turned soldier himself.

Provides the abstracts of the articles in the April 2002 issue of the periodical 'Art History.' Distinction between official and personal spheres in the study of the Ming Dynasty in China; Cluster of works by the group of artists retroactively labelled 'New York Dada'; Critique of the painting 'The Studio Wall' (1982) by Adolph Menzel.