Enfilade

104th Annual Conference of the College Art Association
Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 3–6 February 2016

The 2016 College Art Association conference takes place in Washington, D.C., February 3–6, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel (2660 Woodley Rd NW, Washington, DC 20008).

Speaking for no one, but myself, I’m frankly perplexed at how thin the eighteenth-century offerings are, indeed how little there is on any period prior to 1850! In 2010, I could identify eleven sessions with connections to the eighteenth century. This year, I came up with only four (out of 200 sessions). My sense is that CAA is beginning to understand how dissatisfied affiliates are. In any event, the format of the conference will apparently be substantially different next year (note the session on Wednesday addressing the changes). Will the changes matter? We’ll see. The call for submissions will be posted March 1. Stay tuned.

And yet for all that seems to be missing from this year’s schedule, I want to highlight the HECAA and ASECS sessions, both of which look fabulous! And so on Friday, at least, from 12:30 to 5:00, CAA will be a terrific conference.* –CH

* Wearing my hat as president of the Historians of British Art, I can vouch for affiliate frustration there, too. And yet, as with the eighteenth-century offerings, there will be a handful of treats for scholars in British studies, too. And for whatever things, I’ve overlooked, please feel free to note these in the comments section.

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Looking Ahead: Changes to the CAA Conference
Wednesday, 3 February 2016, 12:30—2:00, Wilson B, Mezzanine Level

Chair: Suzanne Preston Blier (Harvard University)

The CAA Annual Conference will undergo significant changes in future years, beginning with the 2017 conference. These changes will create more opportunities for participation. Among the changes:
a) The session grid will feature all 90-minute sessions.
b) The call for proposals will include not one but three main submission categories: sessions without panels, sessions with panels, and individual papers.
c) The call for submissions will be posted on March 1, 2016.
If you have questions about these important changes, please attend this session.

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Neatline for the Art Historian
Thursday, 4 February 2016, 2:30—4:30, Roosevelt 2, Exhibit Hall A, Exhibition Level

Lisa Reilly (University of Virginia) and Ronda Grizzle (Scholars’ Lab, University of Virginia Library). Limit: 25 Participants. $45 for members and $60 for non-members.

Using Neatline, anyone can create beautiful, interactive maps, timelines, and narrative sequences from collections of objects, architectural models, archives and artifacts, which tell scholarly stories in a whole new way. Neatline is a remarkable digital presentation tool that allows art and architectural historians to show change over time. Art historians can use it to create visual presentations which reveal building sequences, mapping of artistic influences and patterns of historic change. Join us for this hands-on introduction to Neatline which will also discuss applications for our discipline. This will be a hands-on workshop; attendees are encouraged to bring their own laptops to participate.

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The Mystery of Masonry Brought to Light:
Freemasonry and Art from the Eighteenth Century until Now
Friday, 5 February 2016, 9:30—12:00, Delaware Suite A, Lobby Level

Chair: Reva J. Wolf (State University of New York at New Paltz)

• David V. Bjelajac (George Washington University), Peter Pelham, Freemasonry and the Alchemical Cunning of John Singleton Copley
• Alisa L. Luxenberg (University of Georgia), Building Codes: New Light on F.*. Baron Taylor and Les Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’ancienne France
• Talinn Grigor (University of California, Davis), Reveil de l’Iran: Freemasonry and Artistic Revivalism from Parsi Bombay to Qajar Tehran
• William D. Moore (Boston University), ‘To Consummate the Plan’: Solomon’s Temple in American Masonic Art, Architecture, and Popular Culture, 1865–1930
• David Martín López (University of Granada), What If Pombal, Goya and Lorca Were Freemasons? New Perspectives on the Masonic and Philo-masonic Presence in Portugal and Spain
Discussant: Aimee E. Newell (Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library)

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Eros and Enlightenment (ASECS Session)
Friday, 5 February 2016, 12:30—2:00, Washington 2, Exhibition Level

Chairs: Nina Dubin (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Hérica Valladares (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

• Susanna Caviglia (University of Chicago), Painting of Love as Ideology of Harmony
• Paul Holmquist (Carleton University), Centralizing Love: Eros and Politics in the Oikéma of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
• Camille Mathieu (University of Oxford and St. John’s College), Eros amongst Eagles: Iconographies of Alliance in Napoleonic France
Discussant: Mary Sheriff (University of North Carolina)

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Pastel: The Moment of a Medium in the Eighteenth Century (HECAA)
Friday, 5 February 2016, 2:30—5:00, Washington 6, Exhibition Level

Chairs: Iris J. Moon (Pratt Institute) and Esther Bell (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)

• Rochelle N. Ziskin (University of Missouri Kansas City), Pastel (and Other) Portraits Chez Mme Doublet
• Marjorie Shelley (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Painting in Crayons: Pastel as an Artists’ Medium in the Cultural and Commercial Context of the Eighteenth Century
• Oliver Wunsch (Harvard University), Face Time: Permanence and Pastel Portraiture

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Taking Stock: Early Modern Art Now
Saturday, 6 February 2016, 9:30—12:00, Salon 1, Lobby Level

Chairs: Hanneke Grootenboer (University of Oxford) and Amy Knight Powell, University of California, Irvine

• Susan Dackerman (Getty Research Institute), The Paleontology of Print
• Itay Sapir (Université du Québec à Montréal), Patterns of Attention: Early Modern Art and the Potential Deceleration of Looking
• Claudia Swan (Northwestern University), Global Encounters Then and Now
• Marika T. Knowles (Harvard Society of Fellows), The Subject of History in the ‘Figures de différents caractères’ after Watteau
• Shira Brisman (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Hugo van der Goes and the Slip of Sin