Abstract
The research of networks has become a familiar method in various disciplines, both in natural sciences and in humanities. Networks are frequently proclaimed to be a transformation from old rigid hierarchical establishments into new, more dynamic and democratic types of organization.
In art history, they are used as a tool to cross the boundaries created by the nationalities of artists. Networks are connected to the effort of so called "horizontal art history" which aims to deconstruct the traditional "vertical" concept of centres and peripheries.
A key feature of the proliferation of this network paradigm are illustrations and visualizations. The simplifying visual language of nodes and links makes it possible to unify heterogeneous types of interactions and blurs the lines between networks that are physical, virtual, social or mechanical.
An important role also plays the attractiveness of these visualizations and their self-proving nature (the initial model is sometimes misinterpreted as a proof). Networks are becoming a visual symbol of a dynamic transformation, fluidity, interdisciplinarity or progress and they are used in this way even in academia.
The paper focuses on a network diagram from the exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925 (2012), which is problematic both as an information visualization and as a manifestation of the curatorial approach.