Stewart Buettner

Professor of Art History

office: 210 Fields Center
phone: 503-768-7393
e-mail: buettner@lclark.edu
web: http://www.lclark. edu/~buettner/

Artist statement:

Perhaps I should tell you something about my scholarly interests. They fall primarily in the field of twentieth-century European and American art. Recently, I have published in the areas of contemporary art theory, and I have also been examining the relationship between art and music. It is this latter approach, exploring art from the vantage point of another discipline, that interests me most.I have published one novel:

• Bombers B-52, New York, 1977; 2nd printing, 1978.

• American Art Theory, 1945-1970, Ann Arbor, 1982, paperback edition, 1987.
• Great Composers, Great Artists, Portland, 1992.

My articles have appeared in most important art-historical periodicals including:

• Apollo
• Art History
• Artweek
• Arts Magazine
• The International Review of Music and Sociology
• The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
• Meanings
• The Women's Art Journal

Art history, as I see it, is not so much a matter of names, periods and dates. In the classroom I prefer to approach the subject as a means of helping students learn to use their eyes. Initially, of course, that has to do with learning to look at works of art and architecture. But I believe that those same skills carry over to real life. They can be used in looking at, and making sense of the world around us, from points of view that are as valid to prospective scientists and social scientists as they are to each of us as artists and human beings.

The world itself is our book. We can learn as much from looking at it through the eyes of an artist as we can from reading countless textbooks.