New Book | Freedom’s Currency
From Penn Press:
Julia Wallace Bernier, Freedom’s Currency: Slavery, Capitalism, and Self-Purchase in the United States (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-1512826470, $50.
The first comprehensive study of self-purchase in the United States from the American Revolution to the Civil War
Enslaved people lived in a world in which everything had a price. Even freedom. Freedom’s Currency follows enslaved people’s efforts to buy themselves out of slavery across the United States from the American Revolution to the Civil War. In the first comprehensive study of self-purchase in the nation, Julia Wallace Bernier reveals how enslaved people raised money, fostered connections, and made use of slavery’s systems of value and exchange to wrest control of their lives from those who owned them. She chronicles the stories of famous fugitives like Frederick Douglass, who, with the help of friends and supporters, purchased his freedom to protect himself against the continued legal claims of his enslavers and the possibility of recapture. She also shows how enslaved fathers like Lunsford Lane and mothers like Elizabeth Keckley tried to secure lives for their families outside of slavery. Freedom’s Currency argues that freedom played a central role in the social and economic lives of the enslaved and in the ways that these aspects of their lives overlapped. This intimate portrait of community illuminates the complexity of enslaved people’s ideas about their place at the intersection of slavery and American capitalism and their attempts to value freedom above all. Given the stakes—liberation or remaining enslaved—it is an account of both triumph and devastating failure.
Julia Wallace Bernier is Assistant Professor of History at Washington & Jefferson College.
Lecture | Beatrice Glow on Speculative Objects
From the BGC:
Beatrice Glow | Speculative Objects
Bard Graduate Center, New York, 5 February 2025, 6pm
Beatrice Glow, Pax Hollandica (Dutch Peace), 2022. VR-sculpted photopolymer 3D print, metallic paint, acrylic paint, enamel coating, chains (Photo: Aertiron).
Responding to archival research on lesser-known public histories, artist Beatrice Glow creates objects that blend digital processes (such as virtual reality sculpting and 3D printing) with meticulous handcrafting to envision speculative futures. In this talk, Glow will introduce two of her recent projects that leverage playful artistry to foster a deeper public understanding of cultural inheritance. First, she will unpack her recent New York Historical solo exhibition, When Our Rivers Meet, in which she collaborated with culture bearers whose heritages were impacted by Dutch colonialism to create an alternative commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam. This exploration has continued beyond the exhibition and has taken a new form as a board game—Finding Magic Turtle (Unpacking the Four Continents)—commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Glow will also share her current work-in-progress, Gilt/Guilt, a performance-installation imagined as a speculative auction. The hauntingly luxurious collectibles in this project reveal the cascading impacts of colonial violence and environmental extraction.
Beatrice Glow is an American multidisciplinary artist of Taiwanese heritage whose practice includes examinations of archives and collaboration with culture bearers and researchers in the creation of sculpture, installations, textiles, emerging media, and olfactory experiences to envision a more just and thriving world guided by history. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at the New York Historical and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Her work has been supported by Creative Capital, the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Yale-NUS College, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, the Fulbright Program, and many more. More information about her work is available here.
Exhibition | Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie
Opening in March at The Met:
Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 25 March — 17 August 2025
Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie radically reimagines the story of European porcelain through a feminist lens. When porcelain arrived in early modern Europe from China, it led to the rise of chinoiserie, a decorative style that encompassed Europe’s fantasies of the East and fixations on the exotic, along with new ideas about women, sexuality, and race. This exhibition explores how this fragile material shaped both European women’s identities and racial and cultural stereotypes around Asian women. Shattering the illusion of chinoiserie as a neutral, harmless fantasy, Monstrous Beauty adopts a critical glance at the historical style and its afterlives, recasting negative terms through a lens of female empowerment.
Bringing together nearly 200 historical and contemporary works spanning from 16th-century Europe to contemporary installations by Asian and Asian American women artists, Monstrous Beauty illuminates chinoiserie through a conceptual framework that brings the past into active dialog with the present. In demand during the 1700s as the embodiment of Europe’s fantasy of the East, porcelain accumulated strong associations with female taste over its complex history. Fragile, delicate, and sharp when broken, it became a resonant metaphor for women, who became the protagonists of new narratives around cultural exchange, consumption, and desire.
The catalogue is distributed by Yale University Press:
Iris Moon, ed., Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie (New York: The Metroplitan Museum of Art, 2025), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-1588397928, $35. With additional contributions by Marlise Brown, Patty Chang, Anne Anlin Cheng, Elizabeth Cleland, Patricia Ferguson, Eleanor Hyun, Cindy Kang, Ronda Kasl, Joan Kee, Pengliang Lu, Lesley Ma, David Porter, Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace, Chi-ming Yang, and Yao-Fen You.
Exhibition | Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900
Incense Burner in the Form of a Goose, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), early 15th century, bronze
(New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
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From the press release (9 January) for the exhibition:
Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 28 February — 28 September 2025
Shanghai Museum, 3 November 2025 — 8 March 2026
Curated by Pengliang Lu
In ancient China, bronze vessels were emblems of ritual and power. A millennium later, in the period from 1100 to 1900, such vessels were rediscovered as embodiments of a long-lost golden age that was worthy of study and emulation. This ‘return to the past (fugu) was part of a widespread phenomenon across all the arts to reclaim the virtues of a classical tradition. An important aspect of this phenomenon was the revival of bronze casting as a major art form. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 28 February 2025, Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900 aims to be the most comprehensive study of Chinese bronzes during this period. This exhibition, co-organized by The Met and the Shanghai Museum, where it will open following its display in New York, will present the new aesthetic represented by these creative adaptations of the past, while exploring their cultural and political significance throughout China’s long history.
“While bronze as an art form has long held a significant role throughout China’s history, this exhibition explores an often-overlooked time period when a resurgence of craftsmanship and artistic achievements revitalized the medium,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Bringing together major loans from institutions in China alongside works from The Met collection, this exhibition offers viewers an important opportunity to better understand the lasting aesthetic and cultural impact of bronze objects.”
The exhibition will be divided into five thematic and chronological sections that explicate over 200 works of art—an array of bronze vessels complemented by a selection of paintings, ceramics, jades, and other media. Some 100 pieces from The Met collection will be augmented by nearly 100 loans from major institutions in China, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States to present the most comprehensive narrative of the ongoing importance of bronzes as an art medium throughout China’s long history. Featured in the exhibition are around 60 loans from institutions in China, including major works such as a monumental 12th-century bell with imperial procession from the Liaoning Provincial Museum, documented ritual bronzes for Confucian temples from the Shanghai Museum, and luxury archaistic vessels made in the 18th-century imperial workshop from the Palace Museum, Beijing.
The exhibition begins with the section “Reconstructing Ancient Rites,” which introduces how emperors and scholar-officials commissioned ritual bronzes from the 12th to the 16th century as part of an effort to restore and align themselves with antique ceremonies and rites. The exhibition continues with “Experimenting with Styles,” illustrating how the form, decoration, and function of ancient bronzes were creatively reinterpreted from the 13th to the 15th century. The next section, “Establishing New Standards,” will explore further transformations in both the aesthetic and technical direction of bronze making from the 15th to the 17th century. The fourth section, “Living with Bronzes,” will feature a display in the Ming Furniture Room (Gallery 218) to demonstrate how bronzes were used in literati life from the 16th to the 19th century. The last section, “Harmonizing with Antiquity,” will examine how the deep scholarly appreciation of archaic bronzes during the 18th and 19th centuries led to a final flourishing of bronze production.
Pengliang Lu, Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at The Met, said: “This exhibition attempts a long-overdue reevaluation of later Chinese bronzes by seeking to establish a reliable chronology of this art form across the last millennium of Chinese history. The exhibition will also distinguish outstanding works from lesser examples based on their artistic and cultural merits.”
Later Chinese bronzes have long been stigmatized as poor imitations of ancient bronzes rather than being seen as fundamentally new creations with their own aesthetic and functional character. This exhibition redresses this misunderstanding by showcasing their artistic virtuosity, innovative creativity, and wide cultural impact. Through archaeologically recovered examples and cross-medium comparisons to a wide range of objects, the exhibition demonstrates the ongoing importance and influence of bronzes as well as how they inspired the form and function of works in other media. Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900 is curated by Pengliang Lu, Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The catalogue is distributed by Yale University Press:
Pengliang Lu, Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025), 320 pages, ISBN: 978-1588397904, $65.
Book Launch | The Dominion of Flowers
From EventBrite:
The Dominion of Flowers: North American Book Launch
Online and in-person, University of Toronto, Thursday, 23 January 2025, 6.30pm
Between 1760 and 1840, plants were imported into Britain via empire and depicted in periodicals and scientific treatises as specimens alongside objects of natural history. Mark Laird’s provocative new book—part art history, part polemic—weaves fine art, botanical illustration, gender studies, and rare archival material into a political and ethical account of Britain’s horticultural heritage. Drawing on Professor Laird’s genealogical research into his family’s colonial past, The Dominion of Flowers foregrounds Indigenous ideas about ‘plant relations’ in a study that animates trans-oceanic movements of plants and people.
The talk will show how, researched ‘virtually’ in pandemic Toronto, the book’s three-part structure emerged: global, pan-European, and local. His epilogue links New Zealand to Canada, past and present. Following the talk, Therese O’Malley, a historian of landscape and garden design, will facilitate a conversation about Laird’s 40-year career as scholar and practitioner. Prompted by one reviewer who claimed “Laird pioneered plant humanities avant la lettre,” the conversation will turn to botanical studies within the humanities.
Mark Laird is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, and a former faculty member of Harvard University. He is the author of The Flowering of the Landscape Garden and A Natural History of English Gardening. The Dominion of Flowers completes his trilogy. In the UK he has been historic planting consultant to Painshill Park Trust, English Heritage, and Strawberry Hill Trust, and in Ontario he has worked on Rideau Hall, Parkwood, and Chiefswood.
Therese O’Malley, FSAH is an historian of landscape and garden design, focusing on the 18th to 20th centuries and the transatlantic exchange of plants and ideas. Former associate dean of CASVA, National Gallery of Art (1984–2021), she continues to lecture and publish internationally. Her many publications include Keywords in American Landscape Design (2010), now expanded as the website, History of Early American Landscape Design (heald.nga.gov). O’Malley has held guest professorships at Penn, Harvard, and Princeton, and serves on boards and advisory committees including those of Dumbarton Oaks, New York Botanical Garden, and the U.S. State Dept. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Property. She was chair of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (1994–2000) and president of the Society of Architectural Historians (2000–2006).
Mark Laird, The Dominion of Flowers: Botanical Art and Global Plant Relations (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2024), 277 pages, ISBN: 978-1913107451, £35 / $50.
Martina Droth Named YCBA Director
From the press release:
Photo of Martina Droth by Nick Mead.
Martina Droth, an art historian and curator who has served in a series of prominent roles at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) over 16 years, will be the museum’s next Paul Mellon Director, Yale President Maurie McInnis announced today.
As the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, Droth has been an integral part of the YCBA team and an active member of the university community, the president wrote in a message to the Yale community, building “an impressive record of achievement through roles of increasing responsibility, from leading the research division and serving as curator of sculpture to her current post. The YCBA will benefit from being led by an art historian and curator who has been instrumental in its success.”
Droth began her new role on January 15. Her tenure begins as YCBA prepares to reopen to the public on March 29, following a two-year renovation that will help safeguard the museum’s collections for generations to come. The museum houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom.
Droth succeeds Courtney J. Martin, who is now executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Richard Brodhead, a former dean of Yale College and former president of Duke University, has served as YCBA’s interim director since 1 July 2024.
“As interim director I’ve had the privilege to watch the Yale Center for British Art prepare for a dazzling reopening,” Brodhead said. “Martina Droth has been a key driver of this rebirth. With her warmth, breadth of knowledge, transatlantic contacts, and love of the museum’s art and its people, she will make an extraordinary leader for a unique cultural resource. I couldn’t be happier for YCBA’s future.”
Since coming to Yale in 2009, Droth has been instrumental in shaping the museum’s long-range strategy for research, collections, and exhibitions. “She is playing a vital role in reimagining the YCBA’s collection installation and conceiving a new curatorial program in readiness for the museum’s reopening,” McInnis wrote in her message.
Under Droth’s leadership, McInnis said, the YCBA will continue to advance its mission of promoting the understanding and appreciation of British art “through its exceptional collections, groundbreaking exhibitions, field-defining research, and innovative public programs.”
Susan Gibbons, vice provost for collections and scholarly communication at Yale, described Droth as “a brilliant curator with an in-depth understanding of British art history.”
“Her field-changing scholarship on British art studies and extensive experience working with partners across the university and those at external institutions demonstrate her ability to build collaborations and advance YCBA’s mission,” Gibbons said. “Having been such an integral part of the museum for the past 16 years, she will have a seamless transition into her new leadership role.”
As director, Droth, in partnership with staff, faculty, and students, will further enhance educational initiatives, expand community engagement, and foster an intellectual environment that welcomes a breadth of perspectives to be part of the discourse in art and art history, McInnis said. Droth also will build on the museum’s partnerships with Yale’s academic departments to augment its national and international collaborations and outreach.
“My colleagues and I are very much looking forward to working with Martina, who has expertly led the Yale Center for British Art’s curatorial and research endeavors over the past 16 years,” said Stephanie Wiles, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery. “We are keen to advance the Art Gallery and the Center’s thriving exhibition partnerships already underway and together to explore new intellectual collaborations engaging Yale’s exceptional art collections.”
Droth has curated numerous high-profile YCBA exhibitions, including Bill Brandt | Henry Moore and Sculpture Victorious: Art in an Age of Invention, 1837–1901, along with the two upcoming exhibitions, Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until the Morning and Hew Locke: Passages, which will mark YCBA’s reopening.
Droth has also secured resources that support the museum’s scholarly initiatives, McInnis noted, including the multi-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants with which she developed the research strategy at the YCBA. Her efforts to advance the museum’s mission have often involved collaborative efforts with renowned external institutions such as Tate Britain, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, and the Getty Museum.
“Hearing the news of Martina’s promotion is a great way to start the year,” said Locke, the British sculptor and contemporary visual artist whose work will be on display during the museum’s reopening. “Having known her for 15 years, it is certain that the institution is in a safe pair of hands. Working with her on my forthcoming exhibition, her support, intellectual rigor and instinctive understanding of the nature of working with artists, made the complex and lengthy process a pleasure. I wish her every success in her new post.”
Beyond her YCBA work, Droth has served on university committees, including the Committee for Art in Public Spaces; co-taught courses with faculty members from the Department of the History of Art in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and brought graduate students into curatorial research.
She oversaw the YCBA’s first joint exhibition with the Yale School of Architecture and facilitated projects integrating visiting artists with students at the Yale School of Art. She has also mentored numerous curators, students, and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in the academy and museum fields. Her academic work includes many service roles, including co-editing the British Art Studies journal with the Paul Mellon Centre.
Droth said she is deeply honored to step into the role of YCBA director “at this pivotal moment in its history. This wonderful institution has been my home base for 16 years, and I am thrilled to lead it into its next chapter — one where we continue to push the possibilities of scholarship, exhibitions, and public programming. The YCBA’s success has always been built on collaboration—amongst our talented staff, faculty, students, and our wider community—and I look forward to working with all of these groups to continue expanding the museum’s reach, deepen its impact, and make it a vital and welcoming space of cultural exchange, inspiration, and discovery.”
Before coming to Yale, Droth taught at universities and coordinated research and curated exhibitions for major art institutes in the UK. A former chair of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History, she has a deep commitment to the field, characterized by collaborative leadership and excellence in curatorial practice, research, and education, McInnis said.
“Martina’s success over the years is due in large part to her dedication to fostering a culture of collaboration and inclusion,” the president wrote. “A proponent of building partnerships with local communities, Martina has developed programs to connect broad audiences with Yale’s collections.”
At YCBA, Droth initiated “The View from Here: Accessing Art through Photography,” a program for New Haven high school students, in collaboration with the Lens Media Lab at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. And she has introduced students from New Haven Promise into the Curatorial Division of the YCBA and created internship opportunities for undergraduates through, for example, the Association of Research Institutes in Art History. (New Haven Promise is a college scholarship and career development program that supports New Haven Public School students.)
“Martina appreciates how much Yale artists and students are engaged in New Haven, and she partners on and off campus to increase educational opportunities,” said Kymberly Pinder, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. “She has been a great collaborator with the School of Art, connecting YCBA curators and visiting artists with our students and high school students. She knows the value of the arts to inspire young scholars and create connections within communities. I am excited for how the YCBA, with her leadership, will continue to make these connections and advance the work artists do across Yale and within the city and beyond.”
Droth’s appointment reinforces the YCBA’s dedication to innovative scholarship, teaching, and community engagement, said Paul Messier, the founder and Pritzker Director of the Lens Media Lab at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. “As an energetic and insightful leader, she combines a collaborative spirit with a distinct vision for the YCBA’s future and its role within Yale, New Haven, and the international landscape of museums and cultural institutions,” he said.
In McInnis’ message, the president thanked Brodhead for providing “exceptional leadership” as interim director. She also thanked members of the search advisory committee, which was chaired by Ned Cooke, the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts in the FAS, and members of the Yale community who offered suggestions and ideas during the search process.
“Over the course of the search, the committee learned a great deal about the strengths and untapped potential of the YCBA,” Cooke said. “We gained insight into the established reputation of the institution — its strong collections, ambitious exhibitions, and leading research program — but we also learned about popular perceptions and different audiences.
“The center holds a pivotal role for the Yale community, local audiences, and national and international visitors with a keen interest in British art,” he added. “Martina Droth offers a unique blend of experience at the center, close ties to British art circles, and commitment to a balance of exhibition, research, and outreach. Her experience at the center, collegiality, and passionate insistence on reaching the various potentials of the center give us great confidence in her appointment.”
McInnis said she and the advisory committee benefited from comments they received during the international search. “Based on the insights we gathered, Martina is the ideal leader for the YCBA. I look forward to working with her as she steers the museum toward new heights in realizing its mission and makes it an ever more welcoming space that offers inspiring experiences with art and deepens our engagement with students, scholars, New Haven residents, and visitors from around the world.”
Call for Papers | Desire and the Urban Imagination, 18–21st Centuries
As noted at the Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l’Art Moderne (GRHAM) . . .
Ville désirable / ville désirée : Construire les imaginaires urbains par le visuel, XVIIIe–XXIe
Lyon, 10–11 June 2025
Proposals due by 31 January 2025
Les journées d’étude Ville désirable / ville désirée : construire les imaginaires urbains par le visuel, XVIIIe–XXIe, placent la notion de désir, jusqu’ici particulièrement investie par les études psychologiques et psychanalytiques, au cœur des interactions entre la ville et ses images. L’idée d’absence, de manque, ou d’envie à laquelle renvoie cette notion permet de relire et réinterpréter certaines productions visuelles urbaines produites entre le XVIIIème et le XXIème siècles. Si certains travaux notamment en géographie se sont intéressés à l’attractivité (Michel Lussault) ou à l’amabilité des villes (Denis Martouzet), ces journées d’étude permettront d’étudier d’autres dynamiques à l’œuvre au regard de la notion de désir. Qu’il s’agisse de portraits de ville (André Corboz, David Martens), des images du tourisme (Marie-Eve Bouillon, Valérie Perlès, Anne Reverseau), de projections de villes du futur (Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba) que nous disent les visuels dans leur rôle d’intermédiation avec la ville ? Quel rôle ces images jouent-elles dans la lecture de la ville ? Quelles sont les orientations politiques, sociales, économiques des producteurs et que nous révèlent les médias employés en termes d’intentions ? Pouvons-nous parler d’une recherche de désirabilité urbaine dans une pratique de la mise en scène du territoire ? A partir de sources visuelles variées, les journées d’étude entendent donc historiciser les relations complexes qui existent entre réception d’une image et production d’un désir, et ainsi contribuer à une histoire culturelle, sociale et visuelle de la ville.
Les journées d’études se dérouleront les 10 et 11 juin 2025 à Lyon. Les communications d’une durée de 20 minutes seront suivies d’échanges avec la salle. Les propositions de communication ne doivent pas excéder 3000 signes (espaces compris) et doivent être accompagnées d’une courte biographie précisant le rattachement institutionnel des participant.e.s. Merci de préciser à quel(s) axes(s) de l’appel votre proposition s’intègre. Elles sont à envoyer avant le 31 janvier 2025 à l’adresse mail : villedesirable@gmail.com. Une notification aux candidat.e.s les informant de la décision des organisateurs sera adressée fin février 2025.
Comité d’organisation et de sélection des propositions
• Marie Blanc (LARHRA / UGA)
• Johanna Daniel (LARHRA / Université Lyon 2)
• Loïc Sagnard (LARHRA / Université Lyon 2)
• Hugo Tardy (Framespa, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès)
The complete Call for Papers, detailing the four axes of the study days, along with an indicative bibliography is available here»
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Call for Papers | Rome in the Nordic Countries
Customs House, Copenhagen.
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From the Call for Papers:
Rome in the Nordic Countries: Images of Ancient and Modern Architecture, 17th–18th Century
Online and in-person, Rome, late November/early December 2025
This conference will draw attention to the artistic and architectural exchanges between Rome and the Nordic countries from the seventeenth to eighteenth century, focusing on the production, marketing, use, and conservation of images, including drawings and engravings, illustrated books, and suites of prints. These works found massive transnational circulation, and their adaptability made them indispensable tools in the history of the arts, and more generally in the broader European cultural expansion. The conference addresses the artistic-architectural relations between the Nordic countries (essentially Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, but with openness to the entire transalpine world), and the Italian peninsula. The pivot is ancient and modern Rome, the recognized crossroads of cultural elaboration and the centre of a massive and varied publishing production, through which the foundations were laid for the construction of a shared European artistic-architectural language based on Classicism.
Proposals should address issues of cross-cultural exchange, among which we suggest:
Travelling across Europe
• Travelling South, Renaissance to early 18th century: artists/architects, patrons, sketchbooks, diaries
• Travelling North: migration of Italian artists and architects
Books and Prints
• Producing and marketing images of architecture: Rome and the Nordic countries in the European context
• Using and collecting architectural prints
• Vitruvius and Palladio: architectural books in the North
• Architectural libraries
Rome in the North: Functions, Techniques, Styles
• Issues of style: Classicism, Baroque, post-Baroque and early classicism in the architecture of the Nordic countries
• Festive, funerary, and military architecture
• Urban planning and infrastructures: monuments and places
• Models and monuments
Nordic Rome
• The reception of Nordic architectural culture in early modern Italy
The conference will be in Rome, in person and hybrid. Travel expenses will be partially met. Participants will be expected to submit revised and expanded versions of their papers six months after the conference for publication as an edited volume. All proposals (max 1200 words) can be written in English, French, or Italian. Proposals should be sent to nordicromeconference@gmail.com by 31st January 2025.
Scientific Committee
• Antonello Alici, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona
• Mario Bevilacqua, Sapienza Università di Roma; Centro Studi sulla Cultura e l’Immagine di Roma
• Kristin Bliksrud Aavitsland, Universitetet i Oslo
• Kristoffer Neville, University of California, Riverside
• Sabrina Norlander Eliasson, Stockholms universitet; Istituto svedese di Studi classici a Roma
• Saverio Sturm, Università Roma Tre; Centro Studi sulla Cultura e l’Immagine di Roma
• Victor Plahte Tschudi, Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i Oslo
Journée d’études | Les reflets de Pierrot
Though the first day at the Louvre is by invitation only, the second day at the DFK is open to the public:
Les reflets de Pierrot, de Watteau à Deburau et Prévert et jusqu’à aujourd’hui
Musée du Louvre and Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris, 21–22 January 2025
À l’occasion de l’exposition « Revoir Watteau. Pierrot dit le Gilles. Un comédien sans réplique » au musée du Louvre (du 16 octobre 2024 au 3 février 2025), dirigée par Guillaume Faroult et liée notamment à la restauration récente de la célèbre peinture attribuée à Antoine Watteau, Pierrot dit autrefois le Gilles, ces journées d’études sont organisées en collaboration par le département des Peintures du musée du Louvre et le Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art Paris, avec le soutien de l’Université de St. Andrews. Elles ont pour but d’analyser la riche histoire et les nombreuses représentations et réceptions de la figure de Pierrot dans les arts et la culture visuelle des XVIIIe au XXIe siècles. Chercheur·ses, universitaires, conservateur·rices et spécialistes de différentes disciplines ainsi que périodes sont réuni·es pour discuter de l’importance de Pierrot à partir du célèbre et énigmatique tableau du Louvre ainsi qu’en cernant le personnage visuel-théâtral-fictif dont la vogue fut considérable notamment à partir du XIXe siècle.
Pierrot était un personnage issu du répertoire de la Comédie-Italienne qui s’était fait une place sur la scène du théâtre forain, lorsqu’il retint l’attention d’Antoine Watteau au début du XVIIIe siècle. Une figure modeste, voire timide, mais récurrente dans les fêtes galantes du peintre, Pierrot est soudain représenté d’une manière monumentale sur le grand tableau du Louvre, créé probablement par Watteau dans des circonstances et pour des raisons qui restent obscures. Bien qu’aucune source de l’époque ne fasse mention de ce tableau ambitieux et singulier, il est néanmoins incontestable qu’il a participé à la fixation de la représentation de Pierrot au XVIIIe siècle dans son blanc costume et sa pose caractéristique.
L’histoire du tableau, apparu au début du XIXe siècle dans la collection de Dominique Vivant Denon, est liée à la renaissance de Pierrot en tant que personnage vedette des spectacles parisiens, récurrent tant dans d’innombrables œuvres d’art (peintures, gravures, photographies, etc.) que dans l’imaginaire littéraire ainsi que sur la scène théâtrale. Depuis le théâtre de pantomime du Paris romantique, où le personnage était incarné par le célèbre mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, il est devenu une figure clé des spectacles « fin de siècle ». Cette mythologie vivante a reçu un hommage ultime dans le chef-d’œuvre du cinéma de l’Occupation, Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné/Jacques Prévert), sorti après la Libération de Paris. Naïf ridicule, mélancolique tuberculeux, objet de railleries ou rusé farceur — tout au long de cette histoire, l’identité de Pierrot réside autant dans sa singularité que dans sa multiplicité, et elle continue à nourrir l’imagination artistique et populaire jusqu’à l’époque contemporaine.
m a r d i , 2 1 j a n v i e r
Musée du Louvre — Session en comité restreint (sur invitation)
9.15 Accueil
10.00 Visite de l’exposition Revoir Watteau. Pierrot dit le Gilles Un comédien sans réplique
14.00 Accueil par Sébastien Allard (musée du Louvre)
14.20 Session 1
Modération Marie-Catherine Sahut (musée du Louvre)
• Pierrot : figure de l’intériorité ? — Aaron Wile (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)
• À l’ombre de Pierrot, Crispin selon Watteau et ses contemporains — Guillaume Faroult (musée du Louvre)
• Pierrot et Oudry : une histoire d’identité — Hélène Meyer (musée du Louvre)
16.20 Session 2
Modération Jörg Ebeling (DFK Paris)
• « La joie du theâtre » : Pierrot dans l’œuvre de Nicolas Lancret — Axel Moulinier (Paris)
• Watteau on the Wall: The Figure of Gilles in Mural Decorations — Lars Zieke (Université d’Iéna)
• De la toile à la scène : variations pierrotiques du XIXe siècle à nos jours — Ariane Martinez (Université de Lille)
m e r c r e d i , 2 2 j a n v i e r
Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art (DFK Paris) — Session ouverte au public (dans la limite des places disponibles)
9.30 Accueil et introduction par Peter Geimer et Elisabeth Fritz (DFK Paris)
10.00 Session 3
Modération Guillaume Faroult (musée du Louvre)
• Pierrot entre deux temps : survivance, disposition, vulnérabilité, de Watteau à Édouard Manet — Marika Takanishi Knowles (University of St Andrews)
• Un petit marchand de tableaux, nommé Meunier. Commerce, brocante et œuvres d’art de la fin de l’Ancien régime au début du XIXe siècle — Oriane Lavit (musée du Louvre)
11.10 Pause café
11.30 Session 4
Modération Markus A. Castor (DFK Paris)
• Deburau Pierrot : initiateur de regards sur le Pierrot, dit Gilles de Watteau — Edward Nye (Université d’Oxford)
• Writing Watteau, Repainting Pierrot in 19th-Century Paris — Judy Sund (CUNY Emerita, New York)
12.40 Pause déjeuner
14.00 Session 5
Modération Yuriko Jackall (Detroit Institute of the Arts)
• Incarner la mélancolie : autour du Pierrot noir (1907) de Karel Myslbek — Petra Kolárová (Galerie Nationale de Prague)
• James Ensor. Pierrot au théâtre des masques — Xavier Tricot (historien d’art et commissaire des expositions à la Maison James Ensor, Ostende)
• « Le pitre sans défense ». Un écrivain regarde le Gilles (Hildesheimer/Watteau) — Peter Geimer (DFK Paris)
15.40 Pause café
16.00 Session 6
Modération Marika Takanishi Knowles (University of St Andrews)
• À la recherche du Pierrot des Enfants du paradis (1945) de Carné et Prévert — Carole Aurouet (Université Gustave-Eiffel, Champs-sur-Marne)
• Pierrot vivant. Quelques réinterprétations du motif dans l’art contemporain — Sophie Eloy (musée de l’Orangerie) et François Michaud (Fondation Louis Vuitton)
• Pierrot « to go » ? Réflexions sur une figure revenante entre introspection et projection — Elisabeth Fritz (DFK Paris)
Talk | Paris Spies-Gans on Sophie Fremiet’s Portrait of a Woman
Sophie Frémiet (later Rude), Portrait of a Woman, detail, 1818, oil on canvas, 64 × 46 inches
(Los Angeles: Getty Museum, 2024.25).
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Upcoming at the Getty (which acquired the painting in 2024), as we all watch the fires with ache and concern . . .
Paris Spies-Gans | Breaking Barriers: Sophie Frémiet and the Rise of Women Artists in Europe
Online and in-person, Getty Center, Los Angeles, 26 January 2025, 2pm
Around the turn of the 18th century, over a thousand women contributed more than 7,000 works to London’s and Paris’ premier exhibitions. It was a transformative moment for women artists in Europe, who exhibited and sold their art in unprecedented numbers. In this context, Sophie Fremiet painted her luminous Portrait of a Woman (1818). Paris Spies-Gans delves into this era to upend longstanding assumptions about women’s opportunities and wrongly forgotten triumphs. Tickets are free, but required for event entrance. Your event ticket will also serve as your Center entrance reservation. To watch online, please register via Zoom.
Paris A. Spies-Gans is a historian of art with a focus on women, gender, and the politics of artistic expression. Her first book, A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760–1830 (Paul Mellon Centre in association with Yale University Press, 2022), was named one of the top art books of 2022 by The Art Newspaper and The Conversation. It also received several prizes in the fields of British history, art history, and 18th-century studies. She is currently working on her second book, A New Story of Art (US/Doubleday and UK/Viking).
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