Elena Boeck: “Re-Claiming The Original ‘Degenerate Art’: Disability, Alterity and Byzantine Studies”

The infamous label of ‘degenerate art’ was not conceived in Nazi Germany of the 1930s. A full century earlier such terminology was regularly applied to Byzantine Art in western European stylological scholarship. The art historical field is still shaped by perceptions of the Orthodox world as yet another Other. This lecture analyses the narrative trajectories of Byzantine and ‘Post-Byzantine’ art. In recent decades the discipline has successfully challenged the frameworks imposed upon it by others, but has imposed those same prejudiced frameworks on the nebulous category and chronologically unending entity of ‘Post-Byzantine Art.’ This lecture touches upon alterity, disability, inclusivity and creativity while addressing challenges that still face the field.