Enfilade

Historians of British Art Session at CAA 2014 in Chicago
British Country Houses: Architecture, Collections, and Gardens
Chicago, Thursday, 13 February 2014, 12:30–2:00

Proposals due by 10 January 2014

In a spirit of nimble experimentation, the Historians of British Art invite proposals for an informal lunchtime session in Chicago at the 2014 meeting of the College Art Association on the subject of “British Country Houses: Architecture, Collections, and Gardens.” As a midday session, it is open to the public without the usual CAA membership or conference registration requirements. Speakers need belong only to HBA (or become a member soon!). Extended abstracts will be available digitally before the conference to encourage more productive discussion during the 90-minute slot.

Papers might address material aspects as well as larger contextual approaches that situate particular families and houses within narratives of patronage, the history of taste, or British identity. Please email a 200-word proposal and a CV to CraigAshleyHanson@gmail.com by 10 January 2014. In light of the unusually quick turn-around, early responses are encouraged. Questions are most welcome.

Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference 2014
Open Session: Eighteenth-Century Europe
Saint Louis Art Museum, 3–5 April 2014

Proposals due by 16 December 2013 — extended to 2 January 2014

CAAH members are invited to submit proposals for sessions at the Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference, which will convene in St. Louis, April 3-5, 2014 at the Saint Louis Art Museum. In addition to five thematic sessions, there are seventeen ‘open’ sessions addressing broad periods and general topics. This session on Eighteenth-Century Europe invites papers on all aspects of the art, architecture, and decorative arts of the period. Please email a 200-word proposal and a CV to CraigAshleyHanson@gmail.com by 16 December 2013. Questions are most welcome.

From the conference website:

Emblems and Enigma: The Heraldic Imagination
An Interdisciplinary Symposium at the Society of Antiquaries of London, 26 April 2014

Proposals due by 10 January 2014

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Time has transfigured them into / Untruth –Philip Larkin

In his 1844 short story “Earth’s Holocaust,” Nathaniel Hawthorne sees heraldic signs reaching “like lines of light” into the past, but also as encrypted and obsolete. Proliferating and arcane, unique, ubiquitous, and inscrutable, the heraldic has been a major presence across the arts since medieval times; yet it remains, culturally and critically, enigmatic.

The organisers of this interdisciplinary symposium, Professor Fiona Robertson (St Mary’s University College) and Dr Peter Lindfield (University of St Andrews) invite proposals for twenty-minute papers on any aspect of the employment and perception of the heraldic in literature, history, art, architecture, design, fashion, and contemporary and historical practice.

Galloping History
Ankara, Turkey, 16-19 April 2014

Proposals due by 20 December 2013

There would hardly be any exaggeration in assuming that horses have been one of the most important companions to humankind since the development of civilized societies. Horses and equine culture have played a great many roles in almost all historical epochs. Thus, historical inquiry has encountered this phenomenon in a diverse spectrum of fields, including but not limited to military, social, economic, cultural, and literary aspects of human life and its historical evolution. However, since the Industrial Revolution and the technological progress it brought about, especially in transportation, horses and equine culture gradually digressed from the realm of everyday life. The perception of horses and the culture associated with an interest in horses in the contemporary world, as being distinctive of a certain socio-economic class, undermines the true significance of humankind’s relationship with these animals.

For the purpose of elucidating this point, I. D. Bilkent University Department of History and Bilkent Historical Society are jointly organizing a symposium entitled Galloping History, whose scholarly framework utilizes horses and equine culture. Accompanied by relevant social activities, the symposium aims both to bring together the most recent scholarly research, thereby opening up new and innovative discussions in the field, and to enhance the dialog between the world of academia and a wider audience. The panels to take place on the 17th and 18th of April will focus on horses and equine culture in Ottoman, European and American history, in accordance with the Department of History tracks. Researchers in the field, graduate students of all levels and history enthusiasts are welcome to submit abstracts to be evaluated by a board comprising of the Department of History faculty.

During the course of the four-day event, all expenses at I.D. Bilkent University (accommodation and meals) will be covered, but the participants are otherwise responsible for their own travel expenses. The finalized schedule of events and panels will be shared with the participants soon after the evaluation of abstracts is completed. (more…)

From the session Call for Papers for the 2014 Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies:

Intersection of Art, Music, and Spectacle, 1400–1800
Second Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St Louis, 16–18 June 2014

Proposals due by 15 December 2013

Art, music, and spectacle in the Early Modern period intersect on multiple levels: sharing similar themes, formal characteristics, patrons, and artists; drawing on similar sources, from mythologies to religious texts; sharing the same physical space; and appealing to similar audiences—secular and sacred, public and private. Music and the visual arts also paralleled one another in their functions, creating avenues for developing national style, for codifying devotional practices, or for propagandistic positioning.

This panel seeks to open up a discourse on the intersection of music, spectacle, and the visual arts in order both to showcase the breadth of possibility for topics and to spark conversations between scholars interested in interdisciplinary studies. We invite presentation proposals from scholars at all levels (graduate students, as well as more advanced faculty) that address any type of connection between art, music, or spectacle in the Early Modern period. In addition to more traditional studies of patronage, iconography, and artistic collaboration, we welcome papers addressing more theoretical approaches, such as constructions of space, mnemonics and memory, sensory and phenomenological experience. The panel seeks to incorporate papers from a variety of disciplines—art history, musicology, theater and dance history, performative studies, etc.—and from a variety of geographic and historical periods.

Nicole N. Conti, nicolenconti@umn.edu

The complete call for papers is available here»

Conference and Edited Volume | The Gesamtkunstwerk: A Concept for All Times and Places
University of Lisbon, 12–14 March 2014

Proposals due by 15 January 2014

The Gesamtkunstwerk: A Concept for All Times and Places is integrated in the programme Art from a Global Perspective, which began in 2011 at the Artistic Studies Research Centre (CIEBA) of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (FBAUL).

The concept Gesamtkunstwerk (or total work of art) is defined by the universal, globalizing and totalizing nature of a work of art when it combines painting, sculpture, architecture, music, poetry and other arts. In the specific context of German Post-Romanticism, Richard Wagner (1813–1883) attempted to synthesize the work of art in a resounding combination between symphonic music, dramatic action in text interpretation and stage representation, through painting and sculpture, seeking to awaken in audiences subtle and deep emotions. Although the German concept Gesamtkunstwert was not originally used by Wagner, the eloquent way he refers to an ideal of unification of all art forms by means of theatrical representation presents the «consummation of the artwork of the future».

This conference seeks to rethink the concept of Gesamkunstwerk, analyzing the way artists before and after Wagner, in Europe and the World, combined different forms of art, establishing unequivocal relationships between concepts and materials. We aim at systematizing creative processes that rely on the transgression of the individualizing tradition of the art forms in favour of symbiotic mechanisms between visual arts, multimedia art, performative arts, popular arts, and “primitive” arts. This conference seeks to put into perspective theoretical and practical models of synthesis of arts patent in the several cultural contexts all over the world.

In the context of the Gesamtkunstwerk, beyond these issues, it is important to examine not only the synthesis models of artistic forms, but also textual and visual references often aggregated by works of art. Discussion themes include, although are not limited to:
• Contextualization of historical and aesthetic reflection on the concept Gesamtkunstwerk
• Coalescence of visual arts, performance arts, multimedia art, popular art, and “primitive” arts
• The  Gesamtkunstwerk in the context of architecture: Design for the Total Building
• Film as synthesis of poetics, performance, music, and photography
• The  impact of globalization in the combination of art forms
• Collaborative art
• Anthropophagy as an aesthetic procedure (adaptation and appropriation of styles and artistic forms by other artists, of others works or other cultures)
• Museums and exhibition programming as unifying element of art forms (exhibition and curatorial harmonization of different art forms, settings and interactions between the museum’s architecture programme and museum practice)
• Decorative Arts: application and ornament (decorative arts as an expression of the combination of different forms of art, collaboration between artists – woodcarvers, designers, goldsmiths, painters,
sculptors, upholsterers, etc.)
• Appropriation and Remediation (analysis of processes of artistic recreation, especially via digital art;
• Modern and contemporary perspectives on the Gesamtkunstwerk (extensions of the notion of the Gesamtkunstwerk in Modernism and the contemporary world
• New definitions for the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk
• Questions suggested by installation and the notion of place
• Pastiche and the reinvention of the work of art

We particularly encourage the submission of proposals that crosscut cultural contexts, present diachronic perspectives or establish relationships between different universes. Submissions for a 20-minute presentation and/or edited volume should be forwarded to the Scientific Committee, which will proceed to a peer review. Submissions should be sent by email to agp@fba.ul.pt until 15th January 2014, with CFP Gesamtkunstwerk as subject message. The  abstract should only include title and a maximum of 500 words. The  abstract must be accompanied by a different file with a curriculum vitae (maximum: 1 page) that includes personal identification elements, the submission title, academic affiliation, and a selection of a maximum of 5 bibliographic references. Notification of acceptance will be announced until 15th February 2014. Papers accepted for the conference will be published in a volume. The committee may accept proposed papers only for the edited book. For further information, please send an email to agp@fba.ul.pt.

Organization
Artistic Studies Research Centre, University of Lisbon (CIEBA/FBAUL)

Co-ordination
Rui Oliveira Lopes, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)
Fernando António Baptista Pereira, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)
Maria João Ortigão, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)
Fernando Rosa Dias, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)

Working Languages
English / Portuguese

Image credits available at the conference website.

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Collect, Exchange, Display: Artistic Practice and the Medical Museum
MacRae Gallery, Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, 6 June 2014

Proposals due by 15 January 2014

For hundreds of years, medical collections have been sites of medical and artistic exchange. Not only were many of their contents created by artists and physicians, but the collections were also often compiled by doctors, who were themselves artistes manqués. Although medical museums have recently received attention in museological and historical studies, they remain relatively ignored within art historical scholarship.

This one-day conference will look at the anatomical, pathological or medical museum from the perspectives of art history and visual culture. Artists have utilised these spaces for the study of anatomy and pathology—as well as for ideas and inspiration—but what do we know about the artists, photographers and craftsmen and women who have
worked within the museum? How can we theorise the collecting practices of the doctors who founded and/or ran these museums? What influence did these spaces and their contents have on artistic practice, visual representation and the writing of art and medical histories? How does the medical museum continue to play a role in contemporary art-making and medical learning? From the wax modelers to the commissioning physicians to the painters and sculptors who were inspired by its contents, this conference will spark a dialogue about the artistry of the medical museum. We encourage papers on all visual aspects of the medical museum in any country from the seventeenth century to the present, and welcome papers from artists, curators and scholars from any discipline, as well as medical professionals. We anticipate publishing a selection of papers from the conference in an edited anthology.

Paper Proposals are due by 15 January 2014. Please send a 250-word abstract, along with a short CV (no more than two pages), to the conference organisers:
• Dr Natasha Ruiz-Gómez, Lecturer in Art History in the School of Philosophy and Art History at the University of Essex, natashar@essex.ac.uk
• Dr Mary Hunter, Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Mary.Hunter2@mcgill.ca

This conference has been generously funded by the Wellcome Trust.

From ArtHist:

The Enlightened Image: History and Uses of Projection
Université du Québec à Montréal, 22–24 May 2014

Proposals due by 6 January 2014

The purpose of this conference is to reflect on the issues concerning the projection of still images as this way of presenting images, used by museums and universities, plays an increasingly important role in the visual landscape. A projection can be part of an exhibition by artists or curators, its vocation can be recreational or educational, in any situation, the projection still monumentalises the image, which is placed in the heart of a collective experience. Thus, from the early development of magic lanterns in the middle of the seventeenth century, the intermedial transposition has made the projection dedicated to the collective use of the image and gives it a status of mediator to the public.

The sharing of images provided by the projection is transformative: the projection dematerializes images, distances them, changes their scales and proportions, makes them ephemeral, etc. The projection also affects the way images are perceived in particular by focusing its iconicity at the expense of its texture. All these mutations influence how the projected image is received and creates perceptual habitus. The new visual literacies, which inaugurated the conception of numeric screens and their uses, seem to have been initiated by the luminosity of the projected image. Microsoft PowerPoint, for instance, borrows the word ‘slides’ from projection lexicon.

The aim of this conference is to investigate the issues concerning the intermedial transposition operated by projection in order to understand what projection does to the image, how it is used, perceived and its received. These questions will be investigated through a long historical period (from the eighteenth century to today), to build a cultural history of the projection including the paradigm, rather than considering the projection as a pre-cinematographic phenomenon. By tracing the genealogy of techniques dedicated to the exhibition of images, the conference will outline the anchoring of the transition between a print culture and a screen culture.

The expected contributions will explore various aspects of the projection and its history through specific cases (exhibitions, art history lectures, etc.), narratives or representation of projections (advertising posters, scenes in novels, etc.), specific relationships between projection and print, photography or soundscape, technical
developments (Kodachrome, e-readers, etc.) or metaphorical uses of the word ‘projection’ (psychoanalysis, etc.).

Organised by Joanne Lalonde, Vincent Lavoie and Érika Wicky (Department of Art History, UQAM), this conference is held under the auspices of RADICAL (Repères pour une articulation des dimensions culturelles, artistiques et littéraires de l’imaginaire contemporain), a component of FIGURA, centre de recherche sur le texte et l’imaginaire. A 300-word proposal in English or in French, with a brief CV, should be submitted by the 6th January 2014 to wicky.erika@uqam.ca.

From the Call for Papers:

Special Issue of Studi di Memofonte in Tribute to Francis Haskell
Proposals due by 24 November 2013

Fondazione Memofonte is planning a tribute to the memory of Francis Haskell in the form of a special issue of its journal Studi di Memofonte, no. 12, due to appear by July 2014. Titles of proposed papers, together with an abstract of not more than 2000 characters (including spaces) and a CV not exceeding 1000 characters (including spaces), should be e-mailed to the journal’s editors (info@memofonte.it) by 24 November 2013.

Where an abstract is accepted, the editorial board will consider the complete paper by 28 February 2014. This should not exceed 40,000 characters, including spaces, and may be accompanied by up to 10 images at a resolution of 300 dpi. If protected by copyright, permission to reproduce images should already have been obtained.

The special issue will be divided into sections corresponding to the following subject areas:
1. Concerning Patrons and Painters: Patronage, collecting and the history of exhibitions.
2. Concerning Rediscoveries in Art: The visual, historiographical and literary reception of artworks and aspects of the history of taste.
3. Concerning Taste and the Antique: The rediscovery and reception of the antique and antiquarian studies.
4. Concerning History and its Images: The uses of images in historiographical research.

The editorial board, which will include specially invited experts, will give preference to those papers most closely reflecting the methodology adopted in Francis Haskell’s own writings, with their exemplary elucidation of the multidisciplinary links between the history of social institutions and that of the appreciation and interpretation of artworks.

As noted at BARS:

VISTAS is an acronym for Virtual Images of Sculpture in Time And Space. Founded by Hester Diamond, Jon Landau and Fabrizio Moretti, VISTAS will subsidize the publication of new scholarship on European sculpture of the late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods, 1250–1780.

VISTAS will combine old and new. We will marry the most innovative technology to the highest standard of traditional book publishing — all in support of sound, new scholarship. We will produce dual publications, one part in print, the other online. Each will supplement the other, not copy it.

Our target audience is the intelligent lay reader in addition to curators, art historians and students. One of our goals is to provide an enjoyable experience for the reader.

Each book will be paired with an online publication with remarkable digital graphic material. The text will be enhanced by very high-resolution photography and — most exceptionally — 360º photography, panoramic photography and video.

Our Editorial Board will approve books for publication by VISTAS. The books in print will be scholarly, well written and well produced. VISTAS’ books will be readable. VISTAS will emphasize serious original scholarship about visually significant works of art, rather than documents or theoretical analyses. The website will provide a more vivid experience of the sculpture than we have ever had before.