by Jon Lackman | 11 November 2009 | Uncategorized
Wayne Dynes writes on Levi-Strauss’ death:
When I was teaching at Columbia University in the early seventies I fastened on the idea of trying to adapt structuralism to the field of art history. Lévi-Strauss had himself pointed the way with his studies of the masks of the Northwest Coast Indians. I formed a little group of graduate students to effect the adaptation. As with other such attempts to expand the horizons of art history, in the end our efforts did not amount to much. One problem was that structuralism, which seemed so promising, had been overwhelmed by the blight of poststructuralism, with the appalling Jacques Derrida in the vanguard.
Various other art historians influenced by Levi-Strauss include Pierre Daix, Linda Nochlin, and Thomas Crow. Note also critic Jonathan Jones.
