In the age of AI, it is art history

This is a confession, acknowledgment and letter of appreciation to my earliest inspirations: the historian, Will and Ariel Durant of The Story of Civilization; the detective, Sherlock Holmes from the TV series; and Firdawsi, the poet of Shahnameh who conveniently revised the Persian epic, adding the verses of remorse after Mehmud Ghaznavi denied him gold.

These figures may seem to belong to different worlds. Yet, each interprets the past and seeks existential truths from unique perspectives. As an art historian, I see no real distinction. Historians, philosophers, detectives and poets share a similar skill set: careful observation, reasoning, some science and plenty of common sense. This, too, is the core of art history. While many see art history merely as the appreciation of beauty or the cataloging of old things, art historians are forensic investigators of human consciousness, tasked with studying material objects to reconstruct a world. Historians use written accounts; art historians rely on the object, applying knowledge of Form, Technique and Context, to decode artifacts. We ask: How was this made? Why these proportions? What does this pigment's chemistry reveal about trade or status? By doing this, we move beyond recorded stories to reveal human experience.

To show the difference between historical narrative and art historical reality, consider Mohenjo-daro's "Dancing Girl" (2300–1750 BC). Early interpretations of this bronze statuette reflected twentieth-century biases. Sir Mortimer Wheeler, using an "Orientalist" perspective, focused on stance, age and expression. His Eurocentrism led him to assume that the civilisation had stagnated due to a lack of weapons. This is a historical narrative: a story shaped by the historian's culture. Philosophy's approach to doom also drew on the absence of weaponry, but more on climatic crisis. In reality, we discover a civilisation that is not stagnant and is immensely technologically sophisticated. We consider the Form: the stack of 25 bangles on her left arm mirrors a living aesthetic that persists in indigenous communities across South Asia today. The object does not just represent history; it is a physical link to a reality that survives in the flesh and bone of the present. While the historian writes a story that can be edited, censored or misinterpreted, the art historian scrutinises an object that cannot lie about its own making.

History often follows a linear perspective: the rise and fall of cultures, the "stagnant" past versus the "progressive" present. Art history is cyclical, following what I call the "aesthetics of continuity". Literature, too, often bridges this gap. In Bahao, Mustansar Hussain Tarar comes closer to reality than Wheeler ever did by perusing the Dancing Girl and the Mother Goddesses of Mehrgarh. Tarar treats material evidence as a living body and a deliberate aesthetic choice. He crafts Parushni not as a character but a manifestation of Indus Valley's fertility and its eventual decline – her clay-and-wheat complexion aligns her with the riverbank; voluptuous, curvy form and haar-singhar mirror the clay figurines and her movement and physical presence echo the flow of the river.

In contrast, the Detective-Philosopher approach in art history reveals a different reality. By analysing lost-wax casting, we see this civilisation's advanced metallurgy and technical sophistication. Thus, the object is more than an artifact; it is a tangible link to a living tradition and provides unalterable evidence of its creation. In our era of AI and abundant information, truth is more malleable, making objects even more vital. Society asks, What is history? As digital records are manipulated and narratives shaped by algorithms, the "thumbprint of the maker" endures. Art history offers a reality beyond reductive labels, recognising resilience in bronze. The Dancing Girl stands as enduring evidence of her civilisation's refinement, elegance and urbanity regardless of imposed categories. As an art historian, I remain a Detective-Philosopher: observing and reasoning, ensuring our ancestors' material truth endures beyond shifting narratives. The object stands as the sole witness, its testimony constant.

Bano

April 2026