Call for Papers
Art, Agency, and the Making of Identities at a Global Level,
1600-2000
Session at CAA (Los Angeles, 21-24 Feb 18)
106th College Art Association Annual Conference Los Angeles, February 21 – 24, 2018
Deadline: Aug 14, 2017
http://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/
From: Biro Yaëlle, and Etienne, Noémi <yaelle.biro@metmuseum.org>
Co-Chairs: Yaëlle Biro, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Noémie Etienne, Bern University, Switzerland
Circulation and imitation of cultural products are key factors in shaping the material world – as well as imagined identities. Many objects or techniques that came to be seen as local, authentic and typical are in fact entangled in complex transnational narratives tied to a history of appropriation, imperialism, and the commercial phenomenon of supply and demand. In the 17th century, artists and craftspeople in Europe appropriated foreign techniques such as porcelain, textiles, or lacquers that eventually shaped local European identities. During the 19th century, Western consumers looked for genuine goods produced outside of industry, and the demand of Bourgeois tourism created a new market of authentic souvenirs and forgeries alike. Furthermore, the 19th and 20th centuries saw the (re)-emergence of local “Schools” of art and crafts as responses to political changes, anthropological research, and/or tourist demand.
This panel will explore how technical knowledge, immaterial desires, and political agendas impacted the production and consumption of visual and material culture in different times and places. A new scrutiny of this back and forth between demanders and suppliers will allow us to map anew a multidirectional market for cultural goods in which the source countries could be positioned at the center. Papers could investigate transnational imitation and the definition of national identities; tourist art; the role of foreign investment in solidifying local identities; reproduction and authenticity in a commercial or institutional context; local responses to transnational demand; as well as the central role of the makers’ agency from the 17th to 20th centuries.
250-word proposals should be sent with a short academic CV to Noémie Etienne (noemie.etienne@ikg.unibe.ch) and Yaëlle Biro (yaelle.biro@metmuseum.org) by 14th August 2017.
See http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/call-for-participation.pdf for details. Applicants will be contacted regarding the status of their submissions by August 28, 2017.
Source: CFP: 10 sessions at CAA (Los Angeles, 21-24 Feb 18). In: H-ArtHist, Jul 9, 2017.