This chapter discusses the relevance of the terms afterlife and survival in connection with artworks, and how this fits the disciplinary frameworks of art history, history, memory studies, and mnemohistory. Comparing my approach to a standard conception of artworks as memorials from an image atlas of the German 19th century, and to Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas, I will argue that artworks are neither memorials nor memory traces of surviving motifs or forces. Artworks are non-dead and lead continuous lives, granted that they continue to exist, materially and semiotically. I will propose that the thinly metaphorical and history-based notion of life supersedes and ultimately cancels the thickly metaphorical and memory-based notion of afterlife when applied to artworks. Theoretical assistance derives from Gerhard Genette and Theodor Adorno. My points are finally visually demonstrated by Thomas Struth’s first edition of museum photographs.

This chapter discusses the relevance of the terms afterlife and survival in connection with artworks, and how this fits the disciplinary frameworks of art history, history, memory studies, and mnemohistory. Comparing my approach to a standard conception of artworks as memorials from an image atlas of the German 19th century, and to Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas, I will argue that artworks are neither memorials nor memory traces of surviving motifs or forces. Artworks are non-dead and lead continuous lives, granted that they continue to exist, materially and semiotically. I will propose that the thinly metaphorical and history-based notion of life supersedes and ultimately cancels the thickly metaphorical and memory-based notion of afterlife when applied to artworks. Theoretical assistance derives from Gerhard Genette and Theodor Adorno. My points are finally visually demonstrated by Thomas Struth’s first edition of museum photographs. © 2026 selection and editorial matter, Gabriel Cabello, Thierry Dufrêne, and Rocío Robles Tardío; individual chapters, the contributors.

In this chapter, Karlholm outlines how Marcus Larson (1825–1864), a relatively well-known Swedish painter, dealt with unruly nature in the genres of landscape and marine painting of the mid-nineteenth century. His art was formed, at first, by the Norwegian reception of the Düsseldorf school and by his many continental, notably Parisian, experiences. Karlholm presents his artistry, characterized by both Romanticism and Realism and concocted into an extravagant style of his own. As Larson led an unruly life and was often compared to various forces of nature, such analogies will also be explored. However, the fact that Larson somewhat restlessly crisscrossed Europe has been duly noted by the (old) research on him and his existing art – to the point of becoming a cliché. Against the conventional picture of him, where he is reductively identified with National Romanticism in Scandinavia, Karlholm suggests he was uncommitted to being national or even Nordic in his land- and seascapes. Theoretically, Larson's quasi-sublime images of, e. g., burning steamships on the verge of crashing into moon-lit cliffs will also be related to present-day issues on escalating climate change and extreme weather conditions, where they assume an anachronic identity of allegories of our spectral future. 

Vilken betydelse kan konsten ha mot bakgrund av pågående klimatförändringar? Hur gestaltas människans omvandlingar av jorden, havet och atmosfären i konst och visuell kultur?

Här introduceras forskningsfältet ekologisk konstvetenskap i Sverige. Läsaren får möta konstvetenskapens fossila sammanhang, miljö- och havshumaniora, gestaltade istider och gränsöverskridande artivism. Författarna utforskar vidare trädgårdars påverkan på biologisk mångfald, landskap som tecken på exploatering av naturresurser samt nya sätt att metodiskt närma sig ekokritik och ekologiskt tänkande inom konst- och bildvetenskap.

Syftet med boken är att ringa in, exemplifiera och utveckla en ekologisk, hållbar konstvetenskap, som på kreativa och konstruktiva sätt ytterst kan bidra till att värna jordens ekosystem.