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The historical study of art is primarily engaged with classifying, evaluating and interpreting the objects of visual art. More often than not, this canon is limited and incomplete: it privileges Western, white and male artists. Therefore, art history also acts as a tool of exclusion, decid- ing whose work is signficant enough to become a part of it. With the rise of internet memes, anyone can create and circulate their creative works with the vast audiences of social media. Expectedly, the approval of the art world concerning anonymous memes is very noncommital (except for a few NFTs). But how could a genealogy of memes in art history look like? In this course, we will use the methods of art history to create a canon of memes. By looking at historic examples with visual and contentual similarities to internet memes, we will appropriate the history-charged power tools of Western art history and shape an inclusive ge- nealogy more suited to our contemporary concerns.
