Methodology Seminar for Art History in Ukraine
The Methodology Seminars for Art History in Ukraine is a two-year scholarly initiative committed to rethinking methodological approaches and future directions of art history within Ukraine. The project is realized with the support of the Getty Foundation, as a part of the Connecting Art Histories program, by the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome and the Research Centre Ukraine — Max Weber Foundation in Lviv.
It arises from a recognition of the structural and institutional discontinuities, which continue to shape the academic field in Ukraine today. At the same time, the ongoing Russian military aggression and broader processes of political transformation have intensified the need to preserve cultural heritage, reevaluate dominant narratives, and develop new interpretative tools that are responsive to the complexities of Ukraine’s historical and contemporary experiences. While more traditional methodological frameworks — such as connoisseurship, formalism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, and semiotics — remain well-integrated within Ukrainian art historical research, the seminars delve into more recent approaches, which are less established in Ukraine. Rather than imposing a single theoretical model, the seminars encourage pluralism, experimentation, and transhistorical inquiry. It draws on a wide range of methodological perspectives, including horizontal models of art historiography, material histories, and posthumanism, while also integrating more interdisciplinary theoretical tools of visual culture, anthropology, and decolonial studies.
The seminars are designed as a platform for early-career researchers from Ukraine and international scholars to take part in critical, collaborative, and practice-oriented reflection on art historical methodology. It aims to cultivate a deeper awareness of how knowledge is produced, transmitted, and framed — and to explore how disciplinary practices might be reconfigured in light of both local contexts and global shifts in the humanities. Participants are invited to situate their research within a broader intellectual landscape, share their work in progress, and build lasting connections with peers and mentors.
Two iterations of the seminars are planned to be held in hybrid formats, with blocks of deep-reading webinars, and the residency part, during which the participants will present their research. Senior Experts from the international institutions will both engage with the participants in peer-to-peer discussions and join the onsite program.
The second edition, Art History in the Expanded Field, will be dedicated to rethinking the established hierarchies and universalities in the field and discussing the multivocal, horizontal, and situated approaches. Departing from the critical need to overcome the domination of homogenizing discourse within the discipline and its epistemological implications, we invite the participants to explore together the possibilities of art history beyond the established universal rankings, categories, or binaries, discovering neglected and unobvious decentralised connections and entangled developments.
The first seminar took place from August 13th to October 31st. The onsite part was held at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome.