Art history is withering. Art history is flourishing. Which of these statements is true? Very mixed impressions can be gathered from across the United Kingdom, where the future health and reach of the academic discipline is far from clear. Amid all this uncertainty, however, there are some inspiring developments that should be applauded. 

The life cycle of art history often starts with inspiration when you are young, perhaps through a visit to a collection or from the words of an eloquent teacher. As the readers of this Magazine will be fully aware, such a spark can lead to years of immensely stimulating and demanding study that opens up travel and friendships and new world views, as well as rewarding careers. In view of this, how short-sighted it was to make the pursuit of the discipline in British schools almost extinct in recent years. The art history A level (GCE Advanced Level course and exam) died in 2016. It has, however, come back to life and, since 2019, may be studied online; moreover, the latest figures show a sharp increase in the number of students deciding to add it to their academic accomplishments. A key driving force behind this is the concerted and admirable effort that is being made by the campaigning group Art History Link-Up (AHLU) to excite new generations of young art historians. Actively countering the perception of elitism that has long dogged the subject, AHLU works with students from many different backgrounds and major museums, collections and auction houses – including, for example, the Wallace Collection and Christie’s – to inspire study and give support for exams. 

Assuming that some of these students will want to pursue their enthusiasm further (and their testimonies certainly suggest that this is the case), what about the situation with undergraduate art history? The departments of certain universities, for example that in Edinburgh, are expanding. However, the picture is very uneven, as the well-publicised challenges faced earlier this year by Goldsmiths in London and the University of Kent at Canterbury illustrate. Both universities closed a number of courses, including those focusing on art history, and cut jobs, all of which has had a distressing impact on staff, students and alumni. 

Overall, the study of humanities across the UK’s higher education sector is in a delicate state of apprehension, as the extent of future funding has yet to be confirmed. Older institutions will probably prove to be resilient in this unnerving environment, but mergers, if not more losses, might be on the horizon. This is worrying for many reasons, including – with art history particularly in mind – succession planning for curators, teachers, publishers, conservators, academic art historians, art dealers, auctioneers and many other related specialists across the ‘cultural industries’. Decisions about cuts are often informed by statements about the ‘employability’ of humanities students – the implication almost always being that this prospect is far less likely than for those who have studied STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). However, countering such arguments, there should be repeated advocacy about the vast financial and social benefit that is realised through a dynamic cultural sector based on humanities research, as the 2023 ‘The Value of the Humanities’ report by Oxford University demonstrated.[1] 

The development of compelling arguments in favour of art history, beyond economic levers, was given a boost recently by the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Association for Art History, which has launched an online campaign to articulate how the discipline is beneficial both to individuals and wider society.[2] The association embraces the many different branches of art history and the variety of ways in which it is pursued and enjoyed – in higher education and through museums and galleries, as well as independently. 

Further cheer can be taken from some very encouraging news in the realm of investment in postgraduate art history that has been announced in recent weeks. For example, the major grant of $12 million to the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, to create the Manton Centre for British Art (named after the philanthropists Sir Edwin Manton and Florence, Lady Manton), is to be welcomed.[3] It will result in an annual conference and a ‘scholar in residence’ programme, among other initiatives. This all bodes well for this strand of the subject, which is also energetically pursued through the programmes of the Paul Mellon Centre. 

There is also heartening news from Woburn Square in London, with the completion of the Warburg Renaissance project.[4] It was heralded in this Magazine in July 20195 – and it is very pleasing to see it realised in a timely fashion and with such sensitivity and ambition. The project cost £14.5 million and the Warburg Institute’s building has been carefully restored and updated, although this is far from being merely a ‘bricks and motar’ exercise. The institute’s renowned collection and formidable intellectual credentials have been connected afresh with the wider community of the University of London as well as academic and public constituencies further afield. Its ‘Renaissance’ includes a new auditorium, which will accommodate an expanded events programme. A space for exhibitions has also been created: the inaugural display is titled Memory & Migration: The Warburg Institute 1926–2024 (to 20th December). This is to be followed next year by Tarot: Origins & Afterlives and Art & The Book. The exhibitions have beside them the permanent installation of Edmund de Waal’s library of exile, which was first unveiled at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and subsequently shown at the British Museum. It would be hard to think of a more fitting and moving work for such a site, in view of the history of this remarkable institution, as the collection of Aby Warburg (1866–1929) was transferred to safety in London in 1933, during the rise of Nazi Germany. 

Appropriately, as the newly energised institute has just opened, we publish here a review by Monica Centanni of a book that explores Warburg’s achievement and growing stature, following a conference that was held in 2016 to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth (pp.1199–1200). One of his key legacies, which surely provides a bright trajectory for the future life of academic art history, was to demonstrate what an enlightening, international and interdisciplinary endeavour it can be. 

[1] See www.history.ox.ac.uk/article/new-research-shows-how-studying-the-humanitiescan- benefit-young-peoples-future-careers-and, accessed 17th October 2024. 

[2] For more information about the association’s advocacy projects, see forarthistory.org.uk/advocacy-page, accessed 17th October 2024. 

[3] ‘The Manton Foundation donates $12 Million to The Courtauld to create The Manton Centre for British Art’, available at courtauld.ac.uk/about-us/pressoffice/ press-releases/the-manton-centre-for-british-art-announcement, accessed 17th October 2024. 

[4] ‘Warburg Renaissance’, available at warburg.sas.ac.uk/support-us/warburgrenaissance, accessed 17th October 2024. 

[5] Editorial: ‘The Warburg Renaissance Project’, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 161 (2019), p.531.