A History of Art History

"In a complex and overall highly original and learned set of narratives unfolding chronologically (1400-1960), Wood weaves together a series of subplots: relativism versus presentism, form versus content, chronologies of forms versus shapes of time, idealism versus realism, and the de- and re-enchantment of art. . . . As Wood's rewriting of the discipline's history according to the categories of relativism and presentism indicate, he is laying out a philosophy of history. Drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche, Hayden White, and Michel Foucault's categories of history writing, he also traces a history of art history's historical models, starting with the annalistic, or 'roll-call art history'. . . . A robust discussion of the substantive issues he raises is both merited and called for."---Evonne Levy, Art Bulletin

"Shortlisted for the Apollo Awards Book of the Year, Apollo Magazine"