Our subproject explores how color art repro­ductions helped popu­larize art-historical know­ledge through­out the 20th century. We investi­gate how new printing techno­logies and media practices trans­formed the way people viewed, under­stood, and shared artworks.
Our first research area explores the lively debates sparked by the mass production of color art repro­ductions around 1900. As industrial printing techno­logy advanced, photo­mecha­nical color images created new ways for art to become popular – while also blurring tradi­tional boun­daries between ”high“ art and mass culture. We focus on publishers like E. A. Seemann and Friedrich Bruck­mann, whose repro­ductions were often dismissed by art histo­rians and edu­cators as “garish,” “gaudy,” or even “provo­cative.” By analyzing these criti­cisms, we investi­gate how color repro­ductions gained accep­tance in art education and visual culture despite initial resistance. Ultimately, we trace how these images trans­formed public percep­tions of art.
In our second research area, we turn to the postwar era, when color repro­ductions took on a new role in a major UNESCO project. This initiative used a collec­tion of color repro­duc­tions to promote a European art canon world­wide – claiming to foster cultural exchange and demo­crati­zation, especially in Africa and Asia. In doing so, we scrutinize the under­lying assump­tions about emotional accessi­bility as well as the media prac­tices of canoni­zation. A key emphasis is placed on a critical and decolonial perspective: we interro­gate how this UNESCO initia­tive posi­tioned itself within the tension bet­ween Euro­centric know­ledge systems and global diversity, and what con­flicts and trans­forma­tions emerged as a result.
By studying these two pivotal moments in the history of art repro­duction, we aim to illumi­nate the broader cultural, techno­logical, and ideo­logical shifts that shaped the media­tion of art in the modern era.