IVAN GASKELL
Welcome to my personal website. I am a cultural historian
working at the intersection of history, art history, anthropology, museology,
and philosophy. I incorporate philosophy of art and artifacts into historical
writing and exhibition practice.
New: Article in Harvard Magazine on Chitimacha basket weaver, Clara Darden (c. 1829-1910): not
the usual fare in the over-achievers’ journal.
Please click on the headings for details.
I realize that my combination of interests confuses people—it
confuses me—but interdisciplinarity, rather than narrow academic
specialization, is our fate. It’s also in my temperament to define and ask the
question behind the question (and the question behind that question). It annoys
so many people.
Recent Thoughts: and August 12, 2010, and
August 29, 2010. (For the complete list, click the
heading.)
In a career at London University’s Warburg Institute, Cambridge
University, and—since 1991—Harvard University, I have written, edited, and
contributed to a bunch of books and academic journals, and published
contemporary art criticism. My subject matter is diverse because
I am concerned with the principles of writing history from art and artifacts.
My work on early modern Dutch and Flemish art—notably Johannes Vermeer— attracts some readers, while that on museum practice engages
others. Yet others dip into my philosophy contributions, notably Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and the Arts, the book series I edited with Salim Kemal.
I have curated numerous long-term museum installations and art
exhibitions. I work on the Web: check out “I Have a Son to Offer”—An Online Exhibition of American
Civil War Artworks in Harvard Collections. [Temporarily
suspended in May, 2009 as part of the redevelopment of the Harvard Art Museum
web site.]
While acknowledging the inescapability of my European and
American identity, I promote cultural decentering (no more centers and
peripheries). I advocate attention to the visual creativity of a wide range of
societies. Recently, I have written and lectured on topics from Polynesia,
Congo, and Native American nations in the USA.
I am starting to make podcasts of lectures available: try
listening by following the link to my podcast page.
New: Here’s a link
to a video of a lecture I gave at the Getty in June, 2009, “Art
and Beyond: Some Contemporary Challenges for Art and Anthropology Museums.”
It’s far longer than anyone could reasonably bear.
Prospective students who are interested in working with me
should also visit my Harvard History Department webpage. Teaching is important to me, but I also have other
responsibilities, from July, 2010 in the Office of the Provost.
