From the culture wars to a civil war: institutes of art-historical research in the United States

American institutes for advanced research in art history proliferated in the final quarter of the twentieth century. This historical coincidence had a profound effect on the development of the discipline, enabling art historians to pursue ambitious research agendas even as economic and political conditions in the United States undermined public support for humanities scholarship. Yet, scholars of the visual arts benefitted unevenly from these new institutions. American and Western European researchers secured the greatest support, especially initially. Likewise, scholarship devoted to canonical artworks of Western Europe and the Mediterranean received the lion's share of support in the early years of this boom time. Visual culture and contemporary art studies were mostly excluded at the outset, as were scholars working outside mainstream European and American academic networks. These early tendencies contributed to a disciplinary bifurcation that is only now registering its full impact on the practice of art history in the United States. Whether this rift can be mended is uncertain, and attempts at restoring the breach will involve America's major research institutes: the Getty Research Institute, CASVA, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Programs.