Enfilade

From ArtHist.net:

Publics of the First Public Museums, 18th and 19th Centuries: Visual Sources

Online and in-person, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 5–6 June 2025

Organized by Carla Mazzarelli and David García Cueto

The conference Publics of the First Public Museums, 18th and 19th Centuries: Visual Sources is an integral part of the research project Visibility Reclaimed: Experiencing Rome’s First Public Museums (1733–1870), An Analysis of Public Audiences in a Transnational Perspective (FNS 100016_212922) directed by Carla Mazzarelli. Marking the third of three encounters (following I. Institutional Sources and II. Literary Discourses), this workshop delves into the examination of visual sources, vital to understanding the forms of representation of early museums and their publics. We intend to investigate a vast range of visual sources, from views of internal and external spaces to architectural and display projects, from caricatures to illustrations published in catalogues, guidebooks, voyages pittoresques up to the (self)representation of publics, museum staff (directors, custodians, ciceroni), and artists within the museum.

Visual sources have long represented a privileged source for investigating the origins of the first public museums and the impact on their publics. However, in the light of recent studies aimed at deepening the material history of the museum and the encounter of the public with the institutions, these sources deserve a closer scrutiny in both methodological and critical terms. As museums sought to define and engage their publics, visual sources often became both a mirror and a mould; they reflect and shape institutional and societal perceptions, contributing to build up the idea of museum but also to give a depiction of practices of access to public and private collections in Europe and in the World. The Museo Nacional del Prado welcomes this initiative as it has been involved since its foundation in 1819 in the process that the conference analyzes. The well known paintings that represent the spaces of Museo Nacional del Prado, since its opening, such as those of Fernando Brambilla, are an important starting and comparison point for the theme at the center of the conference discussion. On the other hand, paintings depicting ‘quadrerie’ have been a codified genre at least since the 17th century. Such artworks have also been read as sources for the study of the evolution of the display during the early modern age, but they also represent reference models for artists on how to represent the interiors of museum spaces, their publics and staff.

Direction
Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana, Accademia di Architettura, Istituto di storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura)
David García Cueto (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado)

It is possible to attend the sessions until all seats are filled or to follow the congress on line through the link to the Zoom platform that will be provided for all those enrolled. When enrolling you must choose a type of attendance.

Contact
visibilityreclaimed@gmail.com
congreso.visibily@museodelprado.es

t h u r s d a y ,  5  j u n e

10.15  Registration

10.45  Welcoming Remarks — Alfonso Palacio (Director Adjunto de Conservación e Investigación del Museo del Prado)

11.00  Session 1 |  Museums and Audiences in Image: Frameworks and Methodologies
Chair: David García Cueto (Museo Nacional del Prado)
• Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana) — Alle origini del pubblico “esposto”. Proposte di lettura e confronto delle fonti visive
• Daniela Mondini (Università della Svizzera italiana) — Visiting Sacred Spaces as ‘Museums’
• Luise Reitstätter (Universität Wien) — Museums Ego Documents as Visual Source: Imaging First Publics within Founding Missions
• Javier Arnaldo Alcubilla (Museo Nacional del Prado) — La bohemia en el Prado: entre fuentes visuales y literarias

12.45  Keynote Address
• Sebastian Schütze (Universität Wien) — Going Public: The Gallery Picture and its Agencies

13.30  Lunch Break

14.45  Panel 2 | Mirroring Museums: The Public in Photographic Archives and Digital Atlases
Chair: Daniela Mondini (Università della Svizzera italiana)
• Beatriz Sánchez Torija (Museo Nacional del Prado) — El Museo del Prado y el uso de la fotografía como enlace con el público en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX
• Irina Emelianova (Università della Svizzera italiana) — European Art Museums and Their Audiences through the Photographic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg: Between the End of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
• Paola D’Alconzo (Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II), Donata Levi (Università degli studi di Udine), Martina Lerda (Università di Pisa) — Dall’Atlante digitale dei musei italiani (DAIM): Immagini del pubblico, immagini per il pubblico

16.15  Coffee Break

16.30  Panel 3 | Museums in Sight: Visual Records of Visit and Display
Chair: Christoph Frank (Università della Svizzera italiana)
• Barbara Lasic (Sotheby’s Institute of Art) — Visualising Museal Trajectories at the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne
• Luca Piccoli (Università della Svizzera italiana) — ‘The colours of them so chosen to carry the eye forward’: alle origini dell’esperienza di visita del Museo Pio Clementino tra rappresentazione e realtà (1770–1796)
• Julia Faiers (Independent Scholar) — Experiencing Medieval Art at Toulouse’s First Public Museums

17.50  Break

18.00  Keynote Address
Andrew McClellan (Tufts University) — Towards a Machine for Looking: Science, Psychology, and Visitor Experience at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1900

f r i d a y ,  6  j u n e

10.00  Panel 4 | Strategies of Self-Presentation: Museums between Politics and Cultural Stereotypes
Chair: Chiara Piva (Sapienza Università di Roma)
• Benjamin Carcaud (École du Louvre / Ministère de la Culture) — Quelle image du visiteur les artistes ont-ils construite dans leurs œuvres? Les stéréotypes du visiteur de musée dans les salles du Louvre
• Adrián Fernández Almoguera (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid) — ¿Imágenes como estrategia? A propósito del Musée des Antiques en la cultura visual del Louvre imperial
• Cynthia Prieur (University of Victoria, British Columbia) — Shaping the Image of the Louvre Museum: Maria Cosway’s Prints of the Exhibitions of Looted Art

11.20  Coffee Break

11.35  Panel 5 | The Critical Eye: Museums and Publics Between Promotion and Satire
Chair: Stefano Cracolici (Durham University)
• Grégoire Extermann (Université de Genève) — Un caricaturista en París: el ginebrino Wolfgang Adam Töppfer y el público del Louvre imperial
• Ludovica Scalzo (Università Roma Tre) — Il pubblico dei musei nei primi periodici illustrati europei (1830–1850)
• Gaetano Cascino (Università della Svizzera italiana) — I musei di Roma e i loro visitatori in satira nella pubblicistica dopo l’Unità

13.00  Lunch Break

14.00  Panel 6 | The Public Image of the Private Museum
Chair: Carlos G. Navarro (Museo Nacional del Prado)
• Federica Giacomini (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma) — La Galleria Borghese in un’illustrazione de ‘Le Magasin Pittoresque’: per un’indagine del pubblico nell’Ottocento
• Kamila Kludwiecz (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) Aldona Tolysz (the Office of the Provincial Conservator of Monuments in Warsaw) — Between Documentation and Self-Creation: The Role of Illustration in the Activities of Polish Private Museums in the 19th Century

15.00  Panel 7 | From National to Global Image: The Identity of the Museum and Its Audiences
Chair: Giovanna Capitelli (Università Roma Tre)
• Susanne Anderson-Riedel (University of New Mexico) Caecilie Weissert (Universität Kiel) Joelle Raineau-Lehuédé (Petit Palais) — A Global Public for France’s National Museum
• Elizaveta Antashyan (Sapienza Università di Roma) — Visibility Granted: The Hermitage Museum in the 19th Century and Its Representation in Contemporary Imagery
• Raffaella Fontanarossa (Indipendent Scholar) — Le muse in Oriente. I primi visitatori dei musei in Cina e Giappone attraverso le fonti visive
• Jonatan Jair López Muñoz (Univesidad Complutense de Madrid) — La imagen omnipresente. La representación regia en los museos nacionales del siglo XIX en España e Italia

16.45  Coffee Break

17.00  Panel 8 | A Museum for All? The Variety of Audiences on Display
Chair: Daniel Crespo Delgado (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
• Gemma Cobo (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid) — La mirada de la infancia: Nuevos museos y educación artística en la Europa de entresiglos, 1750–1850
• Anna Frasca-Rath (Friedrich-Alexander University) — Through the Eye of a Child? Visual Sources of/for Museum Publics in 19th-Century Vienna
• Marie Barras (Université de Genève) — See and Be Seen: Museums and Art Exhibitions as Fashion Stages, 1870–1900

18.20  Concluding Remarks by Carla Mazzarelli

From ArtHist.net:

Opus Architectonicum: A Symposium Honoring Joseph Connors

Online and in-person, Notre Dame Rome, Roma, 12 May 2025

Organized by Silvia Dall’Olio and Susan Klaiber

This international symposium marks the eightieth birthday of the distinguished architectural historian Joseph Connors and his retirement from active teaching. Currently the Michael C. Duda Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, Connors has shaped the study of Baroque art, architecture, and urbanism—particularly of Borromini and the city of Rome—as a scholar, teacher, and mentor for half a century. In his role as a visionary institutional leader, Connors has fostered innovative work in early modern Italian studies, the wider humanities, and the visual and performing arts.

The symposium gathers European colleagues and former students to celebrate this cherished friend. Presentations will explore issues in the history of art and architecture, their methodologies, and historiography, all using Joe’s personal ‘Opus Architectonicum’ as a point of departure. Attendance is free, but registration required at this link. The symposium will also be live streamed; those interested in following the symposium online should register at the same link on the symposium webpage, checking the box for the video link rather than in-person attendance.

p r o g r a m

9.00  Welcome — Silvia Dall’Olio (Director, Notre Dame Rome), David Mayernik (Notre Dame Architecture), and Susan Klaiber (co-organizer)

9.20  Session 1 | Celebrating Joseph Connors
Chair: Susan Klaiber (independent, Switzerland)
• Ingrid D. Rowland (University of Notre Dame) — Laudatio
• Barbara Jatta (Musei Vaticani) — Lievin Cruyl and the Rome of Alexander VII

10.30  Coffee

11.00  Session 2 | The Rome of Borromini
Chair: Sabina de Cavi (Universidade Nova, Lisboa)
• Augusto Roca De Amicis (Università di Roma La Sapienza) —Rivedendo i Santi Luca e Martina: Architettura come sintassi
• Alberto Bianco (Archivio della Congregazione dell’Oratorio di San Filippo Neri) — Virgilio Spada: Il progetto della Casa dei Filippini e l’identità oratoriana
• Fabio Barry (Warburg Institute) — St. Teresa in Ecstasy: Sacred or Profane Love?

12.45  Lunch break

14.00  Session 3 | Encounters with Joe and Borromini
Chair: Heather Hyde Minor (University of Notre Dame)
• Helen Hills (University of York) — Meeting Joe, via video
• Susan Klaiber (independent, Switzerland) — Borromini and Guarini: Master and Pupil?
• Sabina de Cavi (Universidade Nova, Lisboa) — ‘Borrominismi’ a Lisbona: Osservazioni preliminari sull’impatto dell’Opus Architectonicum in Portogallo

15.45  Break

16.15  Session 4 | Oltre Borromini
Chair: Fabio Barry (Warburg Institute)
• Elisabeth Kieven (Bibliotheca Hertziana) — About a Drawing by Carlo Marchionni: Delight and Despair
• Heather Hyde Minor (University of Notre Dame) — Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons
• Susanna Pasquali (Università di Roma La Sapienza) — Qualche domanda intorno a un caffè preso nel bar nel Cortile della Biblioteca, Palazzo del Belvedere Vaticano

18.00  Reception

Left: Joseph Wilton, Dr Antonio Cocchi, 1755 (London: V&A: A.9‐1966). Right: Raffaele Monti, The Sleep of Sorrow and the Dream of Joy, 1861 (London: V&A: A.3-1964).

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From the conference programme:

Academy, Market, Industry

Sculptural Models, Themes, and Genres between Britain and Italy, 1728–1854

Online and in-person, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 16–17 May 2025

Organized by Adriano Aymonino, Kira d’Alburquerque, Albertina Ciani Sciolla, and Andrea Bacchi

This two‐day interdisciplinary conference, organised by the University of Buckingham, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Fondazione Federico Zeri, investigates the role played by British‐Italian artistic exchanges in shaping sculptural models, themes, and genres between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The conference adopts a longue durée approach, focusing on the century when these exchanges were most intense: from 1728, when the anglicised Flemish sculptors Laurent Delvaux and Peter Scheemakers travelled to Italy “to form and improve their studies,” to the 1854 opening of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, whose sculptural decoration was directed by the Milanese Raffaele Monti. Throughout this period, the two traditions became interdependent, developing an artistic dialogue that influenced sculptural models, themes, and genres not only in Italy and Britain but also across Europe and the territories of the expanding British Empire, from the Indian subcontinent to the Americas.

This conference adopts a typological approach, analysing how academic frameworks and patronage networks influenced the diffusion of sculptural models, themes, and genres, and how market dynamics—along with the industrial production of new materials—either reinforced or challenged these aspects. Papers will explore the evolution of established genres such as busts, ideal sculptures, funerary and public monuments, copies and adaptations after the Antique, as well as the diffusion of models and themes in decorative figurative sculpture, including reliefs, medallions, chimneypieces, and in smaller artworks such as gems, cameos, impressions, ivories, or in objects produced in porcelain, earthenware, and various new artificial ‘stones’. While concentrating on sculpture, the conference embraces an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate how the development of new models, themes, and genres reflected or shaped cultural and national identities, social values, evolving canons, and shifting audiences in the different contexts of Italy and the Anglophone world. Recent years have witnessed a surge in monographic publications and PhD dissertations by art historians, social historians, and scholars focused on material culture, examining individual artists and themes connected to this trans‐national movement. This conference aims to assess the current state of research and explore future directions in the discipline.

The conference is part of a series of events organised to celebrate the launch of a new edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the Antique in December 2024. A further conference focused on the “Future of the Antique” will take place at the Warburg Institute and Institute of Classical Studies on 10–12 December 2025 (see the call for papers here).

Registration for online attendance is available here»

Registration for in-person attendance is available here»

f r i d a y ,  1 6  m a y

10.00  Registration

10.30  Welcome and Introduction — Adriano Aymonino, Kira d’Alburquerque, and Albertina Ciani Sciolla

10.45  Session 1 | New Approaches to Old Genres and Themes
Moderator: Andrea Bacchi (Fondazione Federico Zeri‐Università di Bologna)
• Italy, By Way of Flanders: John Michael Rysbrack and Peter Scheemakers the Younger in England, ca. 1720–1750 — Emily Hirsch (Brown University)
• The Impact of British Collecting on Italian Artistic Trends: The Case of Filippo della Valle (1698–1768) — Camilla Parisi (Università Roma Tre)
• Antonio Cocchi and Joseph Wilton: The Charm of Antiquity and the ‘True Catholic Air’ — Mattia Ciani (Università degli Studi di Siena)
• ‘The insolence of this puppy!’: Evidence for the Complexities of Commissioning Models between England and Rome in the Mid-Eighteenth Century — Susan Jenkins (Westminster Abbey)
• Christopher Hewetson and the Evolution of the Portrait Bust in Late Eighteenth‐Century Rome — Matteo Maggiolo (Independent Scholar)

13.15  Lunch

14.45  Session 2 | Models, Themes, Genres, and Media Transfer
Moderator: Malcolm Baker (University of California, Riverside)
• Media Transfers and Transnational Exchange in Edme Bouchardon’s Roman Portraits, 1727–1732 — Karl Brose (University of Virginia)
• Giles Hussey and the Revival of Gem Engraving in Georgian Britain — Dominic Bate (Brown University)
• Antiquity in Dialogue: Eleanor Coade’s Artificial Stone and Global Exchanges — Miriam Al Jamil (Independent Scholar)
• Flaxman Models and Wedgwood Design Process — Catrin Jones (V&A Wedgwood Collection)

16.55  Session 3 | Book Presentations
• Introducing the New Edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (Brepols/Harvey Miller, 3 vols, December 2024) — Adriano Aymonino
• Introducing the European Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King (Modern Art Press and Royal Collection Trust, 4 vols, Autumn 2025) — Jonathan Marsden

17.15  Closing Remarks

s a t u r d a y ,  1 7  m a y

10.00  Registration

10.30  Welcome and Introduction — Adriano Aymonino, Kira d’Alburquerque, and Albertina Ciani Sciolla

10.45  Session 4 | New Genres, New Subjects
Moderator: Anne‐Lise Desmas (The J. Paul Getty Museum)
• Cockerell’s ‘Progetto’ and the Transformation of the Sculpted Pediment — Max Bryant (Minneapolis Institute of Art)
• Outside Mythology: Religious and Historical Themes in Anglo‐Roman Sculpture (Late Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth Century) — Tiziano Casola (Independent Scholar)
• The Wounded Ideal: New Iconographies in Roman Sculpture around 1848 — Anna Frasca‐Rath (Universität Wien)
• Between Art and Industry: Raffaele Monti’s ‘Veiled Women’ — Albertina Ciani Sciolla (University of Buckingham)

13.00  Lunch

14.30  Session 5 | Patronage, Industry, and the Dissemination of Renaissance and Modern Models
Moderator: Alison Yarrington (Loughborough University)
• The British Glory of Thorvaldsen and His School — Alessio Costarelli (Università degli Studi di Messina)
• The Sutherlands’ Patronage and Copies of ‘Renaissance’ Statues in Britain: from Florence to Trentham Hall and Sydenham — Giuseppe Rizzo (Gallerie degli Uffizi)
• Exhibiting Italian Neo‐Renaissance Sculpture in Great Britain: The Commissions of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry to Lorenzo Bartolini — Francesco Zagnoni (Università di Bologna)
• Genoese Casts from ‘Professor Varny’: Sculptural Exchanges between Genoa and England through the Work of Santo Varni — Matteo Salomone (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata)

16.30  Closing Remarks — Nicholas Penny (former Director, National Gallery, London)

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From ArtHist.net and the conference programme:

Balkan and Aegean Artistic Identities in the 18th Century: Between East and West

Online and in-person, Athens, 8–9 April 2025

Organized by Maria Georgopoulou and Alper Metin

This symposium aims to shed light on the intricate artistic and cultural identities that flourished in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Balkans and Aegean, regions positioned at the confluence of ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ historiographical conventions. The event encourages scholars to engage in a comprehensive examination of artistic production, architectural development, and socio-political dynamics during this transformative period.

Central to the symposium is the reassessment of the historiographical terms post-Byzantine art and Ottoman Baroque. Are these designations still relevant? If post-Byzantine art predominantly refers to religious works, how should we classify secular creations, such as the richly decorated interiors of Balkan and Anatolian mansions? How authentically Baroque was the so-called Ottoman Baroque, and does this term effectively convey the unique synthesis embodied in Ottoman architecture? Furthermore, how should we approach the non-Baroque elements within this period—features rooted in Byzantine, Western medieval, and Renaissance traditions—that complicate the conventional understanding of the Ottoman Baroque? The aim is to explore how these varied influences merged into hybrid forms that challenge conventional categorization.

The symposium will address the following themes:

1  The impact of political and cultural rivalries between the Ottomans and Venice in the Aegean and the Habsburgs in the Balkans, which not only redefined power structures but also shaped cross-cultural artistic and architectural identities. The manifestation of these rivalries in the built environment and material culture, such as building that bear testimony to shifts of power, conflict, and transformation.

2  The rich network of technical expertise of itinerant artists, architects, master builders, naval builders and artisans that fostered the exchange of knowledge and artistry. The fusion of local traditions in crafts (woodcarving, silverwork, textiles etc.) in areas such as Mount Athos and the Peloponnese. The influential interactions between the Archipelago and the coastal cities of mainland Greece and Anatolia, including Constantinople/Istanbul.

3  The interactions between Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim communities in centers such as Crete, Chios, Constantinople/Istanbul, and Smyrna/Izmir, that shaped and transformed urban and architectural spaces.

4  The role of Orthodox merchants, whose economic influence and cultural mediation bridged the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe, fostering significant cross-cultural exchanges.

5  The mediation of Greek communities between the Venetian and Ottoman realms. The dual status of Greeks, as subjects of Venice and the Porte, in shaping of the artistic and architectural heritage they cultivated, with its broader implications for the region’s cultural fabric.

t u e s d a y ,  8  a p r i l

16.00  Registration and coffee

16.15  Introduction — Maria Georgopoulou (Director of the Gennadius Library) and Alper Metin (University of Bologna and 2024–25 Cotsen Traveling Fellow at the Gennadius Library)

16.30  Session 1 | Mapping Architectural Connections
• Nikos Magouliotis (Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, ETH Zurich) — The Printed Page and the Painted Column: An Architectural Microhistory of a Church in Ottoman Thessaly, ca. 1800
• Alper Metin (Department of the Arts, University of Bologna) — Warming Up to Change: Heating Appliances in the Gradual Transformation of Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Interiors
• Deniz Türker (Department of Art History, Rutgers University) — ‘Carvers of Chios’: Imperial Patrons, Ottoman Greek Kalfas, and Nimble Building in the Eighteenth Century

18.00  Coffee break

18.15  Session 2 | Domestic Spaces: History and Conservation
• Theocharis Tsampouras (Ephorate of Antiquities of Kozani, Hellenic Ministry of Culture) — The Political Character of Eighteenth-Century Christian Orthodox Art in the Ottoman Balkans
• Amalia Gkimourtzina (Ephorate of Antiquities of Kastoria, Hellenic Ministry of Culture) — The Secular Decoration in the Eighteenth-Century Mansions of Western Macedonia: The Example of the Conservation Works Carried Out in Tsiatsiapa Mansion in Kastoria
• Omniya Abdel Barr (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) — Eighteenth-Century Painted Ceilings in Cairo: Bayt al-Razzaz in the Context of Ottoman Architectural Networks

20.00  Reception

w e d n e s d a y ,  9  a p r i l

9.30  Session 3 | ‘Post-Byzantine’ Sculpture, Textiles, Material Culture
• Anna Ballian (Benaki Museum, Athens) — From Art of the Empire to Art in the Empire: The Case of Ottoman and ‘Post-Byzantine’ Art
• Nikolaos Vryzidis (School of Applied Arts and Culture, University of West Attica) — Networks of Pluriversality: Trade, Diasporas, and ‘Baroque’ Textile Culture in Ottoman Greece
• Dimitrios Liakos (Ephorate of Antiquities of Chalkidike and Mount Athos, Hellenic Ministry of Culture) — Observations on Eighteenth-Century Sculpture in Mainland Greece: The Cases of Thessaly and Mount Athos

11.15  Coffee break

11.30  Sessions 4 | Relations with Antiquity
• Elizabeth Key Fowden (Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge) — Pharos, Tower, Temple and Tent: Visualizing the Horologion in Eighteenth-Century Athens
• Paolo Girardelli (Department of History, Boğaziçi University) — A ‘Rotunda’ on the Aegean Shores: The Franciscan Church of Santa Maria in Bornova, 1797–1831

J.M.W. Turner, Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne: Morning, detail, ca. 1845, oil on canvas
(New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)

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Upcoming at YCBA:

Turner Today

Online and in-person, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 9 May 2025

The dramatic landscapes of J. M. W. Turner continue to enthrall audiences across the globe, more than two centuries after the artist’s birth. Organized in conjunction with the Yale Center for British Art’s exhibition J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality, this symposium invites scholars and curators from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom to explore the multiple ways that Turner’s oeuvre speaks to our present moment, from its relationship to contemporary visual art to its role in framing conversations about climate change and resource extraction. What exciting and new possibilities exist for interpreting and sharing Turner’s work in 2025?

The symposium is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Lecture Hall at the Yale Center for British Art and will be livestreamed. Registration is recommended but not required for this event.

s c h e d u l e

10.15  Welcome and opening remarks by Martina Droth (Paul Mellon Director, YCBA)

10.30  Panel One | Transatlantic Turner: Reputation and Reception
Moderator: Tim Barringer (Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University)
Turner established a significant reputation in North America in his lifetime and still draws considerable attention from American museums. This panel brings together curators from the Frick Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Metropolitan Museum of Art to explore Turner’s transatlantic appeal in the past and present. How has Turner been introduced to, and understood by, American audiences? What factors cemented Turner’s reputation in the United States and how does his storied reputation affect the way we present and represent his work today?
• Julian Brooks (Senior Curator and Head of the Department of Drawings, J. Paul Getty Museum)
• Alison Hokanson (Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
• Aimee Ng (John Updike Curator, Frick Collection)

11.30  Break

11.45  Panel Two | Turner’s Atmospheric Topography
Chair: Lucinda Lax (Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, YCBA)
How are Turner’s paintings being reinterpreted amid current ecological crises? This panel situates Turner’s interest in particular locations, and the specifics of place, within the broader sociopolitical and environmental context of industrialization and natural resource extraction. Curators based in the United States and United Kingdom will discuss how exhibitions of Turner’s work can address contemporary environmental issues and consider how museums can put contemporary works with environmental themes in dialogue with Turner’s paintings.
• John Chu (Senior Curator of Pictures and Sculpture / Senior Curator for Midlands, National Trust)
• Lizzie Jacklin (Keeper of Art, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums)
• Jennifer Tonkovich (Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints, Morgan Library and Museum)

12.45  Lunch

2.00  Panel Three | Turner, Tradition, and Modern Painting
Chair: Martin Myrone (Head of Research Support and Pathways, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Convenor, British Art Network)
This panel considers a paradox: Turner is often portrayed as a harbinger of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Impressionism and abstraction, yet he made constant and overt reference in his art to major artists of the past. How is Turner being embraced and interpreted as an artist who both self-consciously worked within a longstanding tradition and broke radically with traditional painting practices? How are curators engaging with Turner’s elusive relationship to modernity and tradition? What is Turner’s relevance to contemporary artistic practice?
• Amy Concannon (Manton Senior Curator of Historic British Art, Tate)
• Anni Pullagura (Margaret and Terry Stent Associate Curator of American Art, High Museum of Art)
• Nicholas Bell (President and CEO, Glenbow)

3.00  Closing Remarks and Reflections on J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality
• Lucinda Lax (Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, YCBA)
• Tim Barringer (Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University)

Canaletto, Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor’s Procession on the Thames, 1747, oil on canvas
(New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection).

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From YCBA:

Art, Museum, Nation

Online and in-person, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 25 April 2025

What does it mean to display art through the lens of national identity and history? To mark its reopening, the Yale Center for British Art convenes Art, Museum, Nation, a symposium to critically interrogate the concept of nationhood in contemporary practices of art exhibition, interpretation, and acquisition. In roundtable discussions, leading art historians, curators, and directors from the Art Gallery of Ontario, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Gallery, London, among others, will explore how art museums can revise, think beyond, and reinvigorate national frameworks. Among many questions, the symposium will ask: How have expressions of national identity influenced the civic and public role of art museums in both explicit and implicit ways? How might art museums contend with the fluidity of borders and foreground ideas of migration and diaspora? What can art museums do to better acknowledge the traces of colonialism and empire embedded in national collections?

The symposium is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Lecture Hall at the Yale Center for British Art and will be livestreamed. Registration is recommended but not required for this event.

The Yale Center for British Art is pleased to offer a travel stipend for curators and museum professionals who wish to attend this symposium in person and are traveling from within the Boston–New York rail corridor or an equivalent driving distance (approximately 125 miles). If you are facing particular financial barriers to participating and wish to take advantage of this funding, please email your name, position, and travel details to ycba.research@yale.edu before Monday, April 21. Funding is limited and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so apply early!

s c h e d u l e

9.30  Welcome — Rachel Chatalbash (Deputy Director for Academic Affairs, Education, and Research, YCBA)

9.35  Introduction: Reopening the Yale Center for British Art — Martina Droth (Paul Mellon Director, YCBA)

9.45  Keynote Conversation | Art, Museum, Nation: Building Collections Today
Moderator: Lucinda Lax (Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, YCBA)
How can museums serve the needs of both local and international constituents? What does it mean to present a global collection in a national context? Conversely, what should the mission of a national museum be in a globalized world? YCBA curator Lucinda Lax leads a discussion on building and stewarding heritage art collections in the twenty-first century.
• Andrea Bayer (Deputy Director for Collections and Administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
• Christine Riding (Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London)

10.45  Break

11.00  Session 1 | Art, Museum, Nation in Exhibitions and Display
Moderator: Tim Barringer (Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University)
Curators based in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States reflect on the potential of exhibitions to advance inclusive and critical definitions of national artistic canons. How are curators using museum display to alter or challenge established ideas of Canadian, British, and American art?
• Patricia Allerston (Deputy Director and Chief Curator, National Galleries of Scotland)
• Horace Ballard (Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Curator of American Art, Harvard Art Museums)
• Julie Crooks, Curator (Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, Art Gallery of Ontario)

12.00  Lunch Break

1.30  Session 2 | Art, Museum, Nation in the History of Art and Museums
Moderator: Sria Chatterjee (Head of Research Initiatives, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
This conversation looks to the past, addressing how Enlightenment-era ideas of progress and race shaped the construction of public museums in North America and Europe. Discussants will consider the impact of imperialism and scientific racism on modern museum practice and ask what institutions can do to acknowledge and combat these forces.
• Nana Adusei-Poku (Assistant Professor of History of Art and African American Studies, Yale University)
• Andrew McClellan (Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Tufts University)
• Marina Tyquiengco (Ellyn McColgan Associate Curator of Native American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

2.30  Break

2.45  Session 3 | Art, Museum, Nation: New Futures
Moderator: Anni Pullagura (Margaret and Terry Stent Associate Curator of American Art, High Museum of Art)
Building on the previous session, the symposium’s closing discussion looks to the future of ‘the nation’ in the art museum. How can the lenses of national identity and history be mobilized toward new and productive ends? What other interpretive frameworks can museums use to complement and complicate ideas of nationality and nationhood?
• Mark Mitchell (Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Yale University Art Gallery)
• Stephanie Sparling Williams (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum)
• Linsey Young (Independent Curator and PhD Candidate, Royal College of Art)

3.45  Closing Remarks — Kishwar Rizvi (Robert Lehman Professor in the History of Art, Islamic Art and Architecture, Yale University)

4.00  Reception