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Abstract
This contribution seeks to identify some of the methodological implications and challenges for art history as a discipline when confronted with the ecological imperative. There are clear societal expectations to ecological questions, approaches, and attitudes and a new rhetoric by artists and also scientists that anticipates the necessity of an ethical stand. The shift towards notions like sustainability was so fast and so radical, I argue, that we ought to take time to step back and reflect on its implications. I am especially interested in the intersection between the ethical dimension we now apply to artistic production (as a marker of value) and new interpretative perspectives that explore the arts’ potential to manifest new positionings in the world.