An indispensable survey of methods in ecocritical art history.

Ecocriticism is one of the most important and exciting developments in current art history. This is the first book to provide a survey of its methods, showing what they can offer art historians. It also indicates what the interdisciplinary project of ecocriticism stands to gain from art historians, their methods and practices.

The book assembles twenty-three essays written by international scholars that span a wide range of methodological approaches, including ecofeminism, planetary ecologies, material ecocriticism, ecopolitics, and indigenous ecopoetics. The essays are framed by a series of editorial introductions that provide orientation within a disciplinary territory that is still in a state of flux. Written in clear, jargon-free language, they are accompanied by thematically arranged lists of bibliographies to facilitate further study and empower readers to approach the study of art enriched with ecocritical tools.

This book is an indispensable resource for art history in the twenty-first century.

Introducing methods for ecocritical art history – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio

1 Space: the place and the planet
1.0 Introduction: space – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio
1.1 Haudenosaunee creation as ecocritical method in Shelley Niro’s La Pieta series – Nyssa Komorowski
1.2 Precious blossom cliff in the slumbering dragons mountains – De-nin D. Lee
1.3 Oikos, or an interface to perceive the world – Peter J. Schneemann
1.4 A view from Hampstead Heath: making the case for an ‘Angloseen’ – Charlotte Gould and Sophie Mesplède

2 Time: periods and timescales
2.0 Introduction: time – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio
2.1 Geoaesthetics at the limits of global art history – Sugata Ray
2.2 Weathering art history: metaphor and method – Mark Cheetham
2.3 Interpreting art ecologies of the past – Greg M. Thomas
2.4 J .M. W. Turner’s ecopoetics of steam – Sarah Gould

3 Bodies: ecofeminism and queer ecologies
3.0 Introduction: bodies – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio
3.1 Trans-scalar ecologies: planetary feminist storying with art – Marsha Meskimmon
3.2 Tides of care – Jaimey Hamilton Faris
3.3 What the coral reef can teach us about trans liberation – Jeanne Vaccaro

4 Matter: material ecocriticism
4.0 Introduction: matter – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio
4.1 Sacrifice zones: visualising dis-placements and material extractions – Maura Coughlin and Emily Gephart
4.2 Thinking through boundaries: ecocriticism and medieval art history – Danielle B. Joyner
4.3 ‘The colour of our hearts is the colour of our city’: dimensions of eco-visuality in Nigeria – Frank Ugiomoh
4.4 Ecocriticism at the edges – James Nisbet

5 Beings: multispecies methods
5.0 Introduction: beings – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio
5.1 A multispecies framework for art: the bowerbird across disciplines – Nina Amstutz
5.2 Food and caste ecologies in Sajan Mani’s Beef Project – Anisha Palat
5.3 Ecopolitical aesthetics of weeds – Olga Smith
5.4 New visualities: landscape vision and things that do not see – Rachael Z. DeLue

6 Communities: decolonial and Indigenous frameworks
6.0 Introduction: communities – Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio
6.1 Keywords for indigenising ecocritical art history – Jessica L. Horton
6.2 Ecology’s spectres and the reorigination of ecocritical art history – Amanda Boetzkes
6.3 Declarations of vulnerability: Ring of Fire – Jeannine Tang
6.4 Ochre and ore: Indigenous ecopoetics in contemporary South African art – Allison K. Young

Index