Enfilade

From ArtHist.net, which includes the German version:

Productive Crisis: French Sacred Sculpture on the Threshold of Modernity, 1700–1850
Produktive Krise: Französische Sakralskulptur an der Schwelle zur Moderne, 1700–1850
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, 27–29 November 2025

Organized by Julie Laval and Angelika Marinovic

Proposals due by 31 January 2025

With the start of the 18th century, Parisian churches emerged as a testing ground for new sculptural concepts. Critical discourses on religion, institutions, and art—increasingly conducted in public forums such as Salons, literary magazines, and other editorial formats—demanded updated artistic approaches. There is no doubt that the French Revolution, with its tendencies toward secularisation, marked a significant turning point with regard to the modernisation programmes within the church. Nevertheless, sculptural concepts in the first half of the 19th century up to the end of French monarchy continued to be characterised by the search of convincing and authentic solutions in response to the crisis of the sacred space, while still considering the political and institutional continuity of royal and ecclesiastical patrons.

As part of the DFG-funded project Sculpture and the Sacred: Sculptural Reconceptions of Religious Spaces of Visuality in Paris during the Transition to the Modern Period (1700 to circa 1850), this conference will be held at the IZEA in Halle (Saale) from November 27 to 29,  2025. It focuses on innovations in previously underrated French religious sculpture from the Siècle des Lumières to the end of the French monarchy. The focus is on religious spaces of visuality fundamentally shaped by sculpture, not only in Paris but also beyond. In addition to French religious sculpture—with a particular emphasis on its liturgical and architectural context—this conference will also consider possible correlations with secular sculpture and comparable themes in sculptural production in neighbouring European countries.

Proposals may consider, but are not limited to, the topics suggested below. Submissions offering further perspectives are explicitly encouraged.
• Significance of social and cultural upheavals arising throughout the Siècle des Lumières—especially during the French Revolution and the July Revolution of 1830—as well as the reconsolidation measures of the Restoration for (French) religious sculpture
• Political intentionality in the conception of religious sculptural ensembles, e.g. as an expression of continuity and in response to social change
• Reassessment of the relationship between religious sculpture and an increasingly ‘enlightened’ and self-aware audience, e.g. new didactic expectations regarding religious sculpture as well as a re-evaluation of sculptural illusion as reflected in contemporary magazines and other publications
• Post-Tridentine liturgical reforms during the Siècle des Lumières and the debate on the renewal of Christian art and architecture as articulated by, among others, François-René de Chateaubriand and Charles de Montalembert as impetus for sculptural invention
• Relevance of aesthetic demands shaped by Neoclassical ideals and formulated in art theoretical writings and Salon critiques (such as the ‘beau idéal’ coined by Quatremère de Quincy or the rejection of realistic detail) for religious sculpture
• Influence of the redefinition of religious sculpture on secular sculptural practices
• Artistic innovation in religious sculpture in neighbouring European countries

The conference languages are German, English, and French. Travel and accommodation expenses will be fully covered by the German Research Foundation (DFG). A conference volume is planned for 2026. Please submit an abstract (up to 500 words) for a 20-minute presentation along with a brief biographical note by 31 January 2025, to sakralskulptur@kunstgesch.uni-halle.de. Question are also welcome.

Head of the DFG-funded project Productive Crisis: French Sacred Sculpture on the Threshold of Modernity, 1700–1850: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Windorf (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg).

Conference development and coordination:
Julie Laval M.A. (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
Dr. Angelika Marinovic (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

From the Call for Papers:

Disabilities and American Art Histories
Commentaries for American Art, 2026

Organized by Laurel Daen and Jennifer Van Horn

Manuscripts (1500–2000 words) due by 1 April 2025

American Art, the peer-reviewed journal co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the University of Chicago Press, seeks to publish papers that explore the intersections of disability studies and the histories of American art, architecture, and design. What perspectives, insights, and forms of redress does disability studies bring to American art history? Where does disability surface in American art and visual culture, and where do absences persist? How has art enacted ableism, spurred practices that challenge and move beyond exclusion and oppression, or combined divergent tendencies in complicated and generative ways? What are the responsibilities of art historians to advance disability justice in their scholarship, teaching, and museum practice? How do the histories of American art change when new ways of making or experiencing art are included?

We invite essays that center disability in American art history in compelling and innovative ways. We encourage authors to foreground critical disability studies methodologies and conceptualize disability broadly, recognizing that the meanings and terminologies of disability can vary across disciplines, experiences, identities, and histories. We welcome essays about how disability has been represented, conceptualized, and constructed via visual and material practices; how individual artists as well as communities, including those that reject the identity of disability, have defined themselves alongside and beyond changing understandings of abled-ness. We encourage authors to approach disability intersectionally and to center the histories of understudied peoples. We also invite reflection on how the discipline of American art and practices of extractive looking have perpetuated ableism.

Collectively these commentaries aim to reveal the centrality of disability and disability studies to our understanding of American art history, considering how such approaches can advance multiple fields and contribute to anti-ableist future practices. Please submit manuscripts of 1,500 to 2,000 words (including notes) with 3–5 images, to AmericanArtJournal@si.edu by 1 April 2025. We invite submissions from authors in and beyond art history, including crip studies, Deaf studies, design history, disability history, disability studies, Mad studies, material culture studies, the history of the body, the history of the senses, the history of technology, medical humanities, and visual culture/practices of looking.

The journal’s guidelines on originality, quality, and submission format apply; visit journals.uchicago.edu/journals/amart/instruct for details. Pre-submission inquiries may be directed to organizers Laurel Daen, University of Notre Dame, and Jennifer Van Horn, University of Delaware, at ldaen@nd.edu and jvanhorn@udel.edu. American Art will facilitate fully anonymized peer reviews and final decisions. Accepted manuscripts will be workshopped, rigorously edited, and published in American Art in 2026.