Stefaniia Demchuk on Putting iconology in the plural

Putting iconology in the plural

Conference report on: ‘Iconologies. Global Unity or/and Local Diversities in Art History’, 23 – 25 May 2019, The National Museum in Cracow and Institute of Art History, Jagiellonian University, Cracow

Stefaniia Demchuk (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine) 21/SD1

Abstract: This report looks at the conference ‘Iconologies. global unity or/and local diversities in art history’ held by the Jagiellonian University in cooperation with the National Museum in Cracow on 23 – 25 May 2019. The dichotomy of the conference agenda was embedded into the structure of this conference report. The former section encompassed presentations on the ‘conventional’ iconology of Aby Warburg and Erwin Panofsky and its methodological confrontations with visual studies. The latter focused on ‘local iconologies’ and included case studies championing the idea of either presence or absence of the iconology in the Soviet and post-Soviet setting.

Keywords: iconology, Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky, local iconologies, phenomenology, Soviet art historiography.