
Kitty Zijlmans
Prof. Kitty Zijlmans - Testimonial Arts and Culture Leiden University
"The close relationship between art, science and material culture is key to the study of art history."
“We teach students to take a fresh approach to art and to ask themselves: What is our own concept of art? We can't just apply our Western concept of art to works from other parts of the world, which is what we have been doing for centuries. International art history doesn't just consist of European and American art.
The basic principle of World Art Studies is that art history is an approach to art from across the world... This 'global' aspect is a must in the world of today with its enormous wealth of art production. Moreover, students also want to know how Western art relates to other art traditions. Also, science plays an important role in our master's programme.
In the present-day, very changeable world of art, there is room for many new forms and concepts. Artists, for example, raise such issues as the extent to which man can be moulded, and they make us look differently at political and ethical questions. What does art say about the times we live in?
We also incorporate into the master's unique museum collections in Leiden, from Naturalis and Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, to the University Library with its special collections. For us, the close relationship between art, science and material culture is key to the study of art history. We are constantly making cross-overs.”
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