The Chair of Art History was established in 2002 at the Department of History and it is one of the most recent additions to the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. The idea of establishing an art history programme came about during the 2000/2001 academic year at the Academy of Fine Arts (Dr. Ibrahim Krzović and Dr. Sadudin Musabegović) and at the Faculty of Philosophy (Dr. Enver Imamović). The need to establish an art history programme already existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it became all the more pressing after the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina with the destruction and looting of a large number of art works and artefacts testifying not only to the traditions of Bosnian-Herzegovinian culture and art but also to an authentic meeting of Eastern and Western religions and cultures. The programme was structured so as to familiarise students with traditional art history methodologies (formal and stylistic analysis, conventional iconography, etc.) as well as with changes in the academic discipline that have come about in the past thirty years under the influence of critical theory, social history, cultural studies and gender studies, etc. Therefore, the programme as it was established rests on contemporary methodologies of history and art theory which entails a multidisciplinary approach to the interpretation of an artwork. Historical and theoretical approaches to art are complemented with knowledge from museum studies and other academic disciplines concerned with the protection of cultural and historical heritage.
Dr. Ibrahim Krzović, full professor of art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, who in the period from 2002 to 2007 was the head of the Chair, and Asja Mandić, at that time a teaching associate and coordinator of the newly established Chair, served in the initial organisation of the program. Academic staff from both the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo and from other faculties and universities in the country and abroad—including Dr. Ibrahim Krzović, Dr. Sadudin Musabegović, Dr. Enver Imamović, Dr. Sulejman Bosto, Dr. Fehim Hadžimuhamedović, Dr. Vesna Mušeta Ašćerić, Dr.Vjekoslava Sanković Simčić, Dr. Ćazim Hadžimejlić, Dr. Amir Pašić, Dr. Ljiljana Ševo, Dr. Tomislav Šola, Dr. Sanja Cvetnić, Dr. Ljiljana Kolešnik, Dr. Ivana Prijatelj Pavičić—contributed to the development of teaching and research at the Chair. Also, former Chair members, Dr. Mirza Hasan Ćeman and teaching associate Andrea Baotić-Rustanbegović, MA (who today holds a PhD), contributed to the development of the Chair.
To date, two doctoral dissertations—The Modern and Postmodern in Bosnian-Herzegovinian Graphics in the 1960s and 1970s (Aida Abadžić Hodžić) and The Problem of the Reception of Contemporary Art: The Role and Meaning of the Program for Museums of Contemporary Art (Asja Mandić)—have been defended at the Chair of Art History.
From 2002 to 2010, twenty-five bachelor’s theses and seventeen master’s theses have been defended.
There are currently four faculty members at the Chair of Art History—Dr. Aida Abadžić Hodžić, Dr. Asja Mandić, Dr. Senadin Musabegović, Dr. Haris Dervišević (who also serves as head of the Chair)—and one teaching assistant, Andrea Mekić, MA.