CALL FOR PAPERS

CALL FOR PAPERS
NORDIK 2015 — Mapping Uncharted Territories
The 11th Triannual Nordik Committee for Art History Conference
13–16 May 2015
University of Iceland and The Nordic House Reykjavík
Keynote speakers:
Professor Elaine O'Brien, Sacramento State University
Professor Terence E. Smith, University of Pittsburg
Gavin Jantjes, Chief Curator, National Museum for Art, Architecture, and Design, Oslo.
T
he 2015 conference will explore questions about the structure of the “art-world” and the
establishment of hierarchies in terms of a dichotomy between “center” and “periphery”
that have been important in art historical discourse for the past decades, within the Nordic
countries as well as in other countries fnding themselves in a peripheral position. Many of
those are questions related to ideas of identity and power, as well as attempts to address the
possibilities of empowerment of those that perceive themselves to be in a marginal position.
In recent decades it has become increasingly evident that the lack of research into the
non-centric aspects of art has left us with a very incomplete picture of art history in general,
its forms, structures and forces. We now perceive an increasing need to travel to those largely
unchartered territories and attempt to map them, categorize them and understand, in order
to criticize and disrupt the centric and provide a more coherent art-world view where both
center and periphery are included in a comprehensive manner.
We invite paper proposals for the 21 sessions spanning a wide range of topics.
Submit a 1–2 page abstract, brief c.v. (two pages max.), and full contact information by
September 25, 2014.
NB: Please direct your communication both to the chairs of relevant sessions and to the
conference organisers at: papers.nordik2015@listfraedi.is
NORDIK 2015: Overview of Sessions
Annamari Vänskä & Hazel Clark: Critical Fashion Curating ....................................................................... 2
Harald Klinke: Digital Art History – a new frontier in research: ................................................................... 4
Mark Ian Jones: Discontinuities and Alternative Histories: Mapping the peripheral in Nordic Modernity ........ 6
Hans Hayden & Charlotta Krispinsson: Expanding Perspectives in the Study of Art Historiography ............... 8
Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir,: Histories of Media Art in the Nordic and Baltic Countries ............................. 10
Arndís S. Árnadóttir: Mapping local/regional design history in the Nordic periphery ..................................... 12
Jón Proppé: Mapping the Art of the West-Nordic Countries ......................................................................... 14
Rasmus Kjærboe & Karen Westphal Eriksen: Marginal Modernisms within the Nordic countries ................ 16
Tonje H. Sørensen & Tove Kårstad Haugsbø: Meaningless Landscapes? From National Roots
to Transnational Routes ................................................................................................................... 18
Mari Hvattum, Mari Lending, & Wallis Willer: Mediating Modern Architecture ...................................... 20
Marta Edling , Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir & Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir: Navigating in a
landscape of conflicting views on artistic research: History, practices, policies ............................... 22
Tania Ørum: Nordic Avant-Garde Movements after World War II .............................................................. 24
Malin Hedlin Hayden & Magdalena Holdar: Performance As Visual Art In the Nordic Countries ............... 26
Melanie Klein & Isabel Wünsche: Progressive Art Education and the Spread of Modernism beyond Europe .. 28
Charlotte Bydler, & Mårten Snickare,: Resisting art world violence: Indigenous/Sámi art
and material culture in a post-peripheral view .................................................................................. 30
Clarence Burton Sheffield, Jr.: The Aesthetics of the Margin: The Role of Global Literary theory for
Scandinavian Modernism and Nordic Art History ........................................................................... 32
Guðrún Harðardóttir: The Mini as a reflection of the Macro. Miniatures as source material ......................... 34
Ann-Sofie Nielsen Gremaud & Gry Hedin: Uncharted nature: Nordic Landscapes in the Era
of the Anthropocene ........................................................................................................................ 36
Dagný Heiðdal & Steinar Örn Atlason: Uncharted Photography: On the relationship between
Photography and other Media, particularly Painting, in Nordic Pictorial Tradition ............................ 38
Renja Suominen-Kokkonen & Hanna Kemppi: Unwanted Monuments & The Silenced Pasts .................... 40
Sarah Timme: Vikings, Gods and Heroes. Northern Antiquity in Visual Art after the Middle Ages ................. 42
Ylva Sommerland & Margareta Wallin Wictorin: Writing comics into art history and art history
into comics research ........................................................................................................................ 44
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Annamari Vänskä, Adjunct Professor, Collegium Researcher, TIAS – Turku
Institute for Advanced Studies University of Turku
annamari.vanska@utu.fi
Hazel Clark, Professor of Design Studies and Fashion Studies, Research Chair of
Fashion, Parsons The New School for Design, New York, USA
Clark@newschool.edu
TITLE:
Critical Fashion Curating
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Fashion has fast become hard currency in the world of curating. It makes blockbuster exhibitions, establishes new museums and cultural organisations, and
merges art with fashion. It also urges to ask, how does this new emerging field of
curating change the practice itself? What is fashion curating? What is the role of
the contemporary fashion curator?
Critical Fashion Curating invites papers and presentations focusing on
possibilities and challenges of contemporary fashion curating on a global scale.
Themes can discuss for example: What is fashion curating, when did it emerge?
What needs does it respond to? What is the relationship between art, fashion,
design and industry? What are the challenges of fashion curating? How should
the practice be developed?
FULL DESCRIPTION:
In autumn 2012, the shop windows of the fashion department store Selfridges in
London were transformed into displays were art and fashion merged. Life-sized
and miniature mannequin dolls modelled after the world-famous Japanese artist
Yaoi Kusama wearing a red gown patterned by her signature white polka dots,
were surrounded by Louis Vuitton hand-bags in diferent sizes and colours, also
printed with Kusama’s polka dots. Simultaneously, the London-based Saatchi
Gallery exhibited another show merging fashion with art. This was a travelling exhibition entitled “The Little Black Jacket”, a show dedicated to Chanel’s signature
blazer, co-organised by the designer Karl Lagerfeld and former Vogue-editor
Carine Roitfeld. It featured over a hundred, mostly black-and-white photographic
portraits of Chanel’s models and other known celebrities, each making an interpretation of the jacket reflecting their own personal style.
Both of these examples go to show how successfully fashion and art merge in
contemporary culture despite the fact that fashion has long been regarded as a
“stepchild” in the art world. Art has been regarded to be timeless by definition
and fashion, on the other hand, has been regarded as the synonym with
continuous change, dying and decay. These examples also go to show that the
dichotomy between art and fashion is fast subsiding. On one hand, fashion has
achieved a cultural status similar to art and art in turn is benefitting from fashion’s
close ties with the popular, commercialism, and celebrity culture.
Fashion has fast become hard currency in the world of curating. It makes
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blockbuster exhibitions, establishes new museums and cultural organisations, and
new ways of bringing art and fashion together. It also urges to ask, how does this
new emerging field of curating change the practice itself? What is fashion
curating? What is the role of the contemporary fashion curator?
Critical Fashion Curating invites papers and presentations that focus on the
possibilities and challenges of contemporary fashion curating on a global scale.
Fashion curating has quickly become a new field of curating, opening new ways
to theorize, and exhibit and experience fashion, clothing and textiles. The session
stresses critical points of view to fashion curating, as w
The session invites papers with a focus on following theoretical and practical
questions about curating: What is fashion curating? When did it emerge and why,
what needs does it respond to in contemporary world of curating and fashion?
The session welcomes papers focusing on critical curatorial practices in
fashion. The papers can discuss, for example, the relationship between art and
fashion, design and industry; when and how did it become such an essential part
of curating? What needs does fashion curating respond to in contemporary
culture and fashion? How does fashion curating bring art and fashion together?
How can art and fashion benefit one another, and teach to one another? What are
the obstacles and challenges of fashion curating? What kind of audiences do
fashion exhibitions invite? What are the challenges of fashion curating? How
should the practice be developed?
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Dr. Harald Klinke, Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Universität Göttingen
hklinke@uni-goettingen.de
TITLE:
Digital Art History – a new frontier in research: New approaches to intelligent image
databases in art history, on the intersection of Art History and Information Sciences
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Art History is at the brink of new ways of accessing its material and gaining un precedented insights. While we are still using image databases that resemble slide
libraries, Information Science has to ofer multiple ad#vanced approaches to images, such as content based search and classification that will become important
tools for art historical research. Big Image Data will enable us to master the con tent of huge collections by making use of intelligent algorithms and visualising
their results. What requirements does Art History have towards Information
Technology? What projects do exist that can serve as best practice? Which direction does Art History go from here?
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Art History is at the brink of new ways of accessing its material and gaining un precedented insights. While we are still using image databases that resemble slide
libraries, Information Science has to ofer multiple ad#vanced approaches to images, such as content based search and classification that will become important
tools for art historical research. Big Image Data will enable us to master the con tent of huge collections by making use of intelligent algorithms and visualising
their results. What requirements does Art History have towards Information
Technology? What projects do exist that can serve as best practice? Which direction does Art History go from here?
While we teach our students to amass a collection of artworks in their minds
in order to recognise, compare and judge art, computers are able to store, make
available and analyse more images than any human could see in a lifetime. The
computer is increasingly able not only to search across meta data, but to derive
information from the image itself, like colour information, similari#ties, entropy
or content information. The computer is increasingly able to not only deal with
pixels, but to virtually see what is on them. Moreover, computers can help to
classify image, e.g. into epochs and artists.
The so called Digital Humanities investigate the potential of the use of
Information Technology (IT) in the humanities. Sciences that are dealing with
images, like Art History, are slowly catching up. Still, the prototype of a
department of art history has had two repositories of knowledge: the library and
the slide library. The slide library has now been digitalised in databases of images
with their respective meta data. But still they mimic slide libraries in structure,
i.e. we can find what we already know. We have not yet raised its digital treasure
to find what we do not know already. But Art History is at the brink of entirely
new methods by means of IT. Soon we will have tools in our hands that will
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revolutionise our discipline.
Papers should consider questions such as:
•
Which advanced digital tools are suitable for image search in Art
History?
•
How to visualise Big Image Data?
•
What are the future challenges for computer vision in the service
of Art History?
•
What are the requirements for a rich image format that serves research in art?
•
How can we learn from experiences in museums?
•
What are concepts for an international IT infrastructure for Art
History?
•
What are interdisciplinary approaches that can serve as best practice?
•
If the computer is increasingly intelligent, what is the role of the
researcher and his relations to the tool being used?
•
If the computer is the new medium in research and teaching, how
does that change the methods we are using and does that have precursors in the history of our discipline?
•
If Art History is about to experience fundamental change, what
has to be the guiding line to de#velop digital tools that serve our scientific objectives?
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Mark Ian Jones PhD University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts,
Sydney, Australia.
mark.i.jones@unsw.edu.au
TITLE:
Discontinuitiesand Alternative Histories: Mapping the peripheral in Nordic
Modernity
SHORT ABSTRACT:
This session is concerned with both the inside and the other side of the
inclusive/exclusive line in the discourses of Nordic Modernity and with what
factors determined the delineation of diference, of inclusion and exclusion and
what art and design historians wanted to see and wanted to stress. It is also interested in those artists and designers who straddled the line between central and
peripheral and the details of their alternative histories. It proposes that geographic
boundaries too have clouded the representation and description of Nordic design
as opposed to Scandinavian design in discourse in those countries perceived as
central are as important as those perceived as peripheral.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Twentieth Century Nordic Modernity has largely defined how the world still
views design and the applied arts from the Nordic region. In mapping the discourses of Swedish Modernity geographer Alan Pred situated the 1930 Stockholm
Exhibition as the defining line, the “pure and simple line”, where:
On the inside of the line is the new sense of national identity, a new sense of achieve ment, the sensibly modern, the rational and enlightened individual who bears her expanded freedom [...] On the other side of the line, outside and beyond, is the di#erent, the
inferior, the repudiated, the disapproved and condemned, the unmodern, the irrational,
the unenlightened.
This line may be seen to have defined not only Swedish Modernity but also
Scandinavian and Nordic Modernity as evidenced in the subsequent trajectory of
international awareness of design from the region in discourses where national became blurred with regional. Discourse has the power to shape perceptions or
knowledge around what is considered normal or accepted. In the case of Nordic
Modernity, it can be argued that discourse presented knowledge of a particular
aesthetic, grounded in issues of national and (exclusive) regional identity. As a result, Nordic design from the 20th century may be seen as exclusive and regional
rather than inclusive and international, a view that runs counter to the democratic spirit of the region. As art and design historians we know this not to be true
however knowledge as promoted by discourses was exclusive; that which did not
fit, was not ‘accepted’, and thus either excluded or viewed as not representative of
the truth.
Cherry and Pollock have considered the female artist “intricated in class and
gender power relations which have determined who is recorded, how, and by
whom - and who is not. Foucault has speculated on the ‘discontinuities’ in history
and posed the question “how is it that one particular statement appeared rather
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than another? What conditions informed historical discourses and what are the
consequences of the ‘traces’ they have left?
This session is concerned with both the inside and the other side of the
inclusive/exclusive line in the discourses of Nordic Modernity and with what
factors determined the delineation of diference, of inclusion and exclusion and
what art and design historians wanted to see and wanted to stress. It is also
interested in those artists and designers who straddled the line between central
and peripheral and the details of their alternative histories. It proposes that
geographic boundaries too have clouded the representation and description of
Nordic design as opposed to Scandinavian design in discourse in those countries
perceived as central are as important as those perceived as peripheral.
This session invites papers that address the questions:
•
Who were the dominant groups within art, design and the applied
arts in the Nordic region and what were their roles as arbiters, judges,
editors, promotors and commentators?
•
What implications did ‘power relations’ have on determining how
art and design historians constructed discourses?
•
Who were the the artists and designers that straddled the line
between central and peripheral and what are their alternative histories?
•
Who were the artists and designers that evaded inclusion or were
marginalised and the victims of exclusion?
•
Who were the artists and designers that represent ‘discontinuities’
in Nordic art and design history?
•
Who were the artists and designers whose Other work is hitherto
unknown?
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Hans Hayden PhD, Dept. of Art History, Stockholm University
hans.hayden@arthistory.su.se
Charlotta Krispinsson PhD Student, Dept. of Art History, Stockholm University
charlotta.krispinsson@arthistory.su.se
TITLE:
Expanding Perspectives in the Study of Art Historiography
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Since the study of art historiography was first formulated as a field of research in
the 1980s, an underlying aim has been to turn attention to unconsidered methods, practices and ideologies. As an investigation into the past of the discipline,
the core of art historiography has since then been an exploration of scholarships,
conceptual foundations and institutional history. Today, we can see an expansion
of possibilities in contemporary research, reflecting diferent conceptual, theoretical and contextual perspectives. The aim of this session is thus to explore what
kind of critical examination of the historiography of art history exists and operates in recent research, and what they embrace.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Since the study of art historiography was first formulated as a field of research in
the 1980s, an underlying aim has been to turn the attention into the by then un considered methods, practices and ideologies. Historiography has shown that
every approach has a history As an investigation into the past of the discipline,
the core of art historiography has since then been an exploration of scholarships,
conceptual foundations and institutional history.
Today, research in art historiography has become an institutionalized part of
the discipline. Institutionalization brings possibilities as well as challenges.
Critical voices have been raised (eg. Dana Arnold, Art History 2009) that Art
historiography would then imitate the development of art history in the 19th
century, by moving from mapping and exploration into processes of constructing
a canon of linear progression, hereby reinforcing a heritage of ’old masters’ and
geographical limits set by national borders / (national restrictions).On the other
hand, the scope of research has also been widened – from centering almost
exclusively on the foundation and early history of the discipline in Germanspeaking languages, ’peripheries’ such as the Nordic countries has now been wider
acknowledged in international research (see for example Matthew Rampley etc.
eds., 2012). Writings in art historiography have also turned to new contexts of
research, such as popular culture and cross-readings with critical theory (Frederic
J. Schwartz 2005, Karen Lang 2006), recent theory (Michael Ann Holly 2013,
Keith Moxey 2013) and ideology and politics (Christopher Wood 2000 and
Rampley 2013). These are but a few examples of an expansion of perspectives in
contemporary critical art historiographical research, whose objective is not to
preserve a canonical narrative of the history of art history but rather to explore
and move beyond such a narrative.
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Here you can also tell a diference between center and periphery, where the
historiographic research in the Nordic countries for example, may present a
slightly diferent approach to the canonical narrative. In the past some parts of
this field of research have strived to map and create awareness of national
scholarly traditions in relation to an international context, when other parts has
conducted critical surveys in the aftermath of New Art History. But where are we
today? Is it possible for Nordic scholars to make use of the semi-peripheral
position to open up new perspectives in the art historiographic research?
Thus, the question is how do we comprehend such a multivalent
development ourselves today? What kinds of alternative critical examination of
the historiography of art history exist and operate today and what do they
embrace? Do they involve interdisciplinary readings, studies in global art
historiography, the history of feminist art historiography, the specific conditions
of the semi-periphery (i.e. the art historiography of the Nordic countries), the
unwritten practices of art historians as a profession outside the university – or
something completely else? This session, thus, would like to gather papers that
represent diferent methodological, theoretical and contextual perspectives of
contemporary critical historiography of art history.
9
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, PhD in aesthetics and art theory
meo@simnet.is
TITLE:
Histories of Media Art in the Nordic and Baltic Countries
SHORT ABSTRACT:
The session will focus on questions concerning historiographies of media art. Media art is generally understood as what used to be referred to as new media art,
that was seen as an emerging practice in the late 1990’s. When new media art was
still new it seemed to be without history and thus free from any art historical
past. But gradually media art histories that went beyond the newest trends, started to emerge. Those histories are told through narratives that can be considered
as equally new and raise questions as how media art histories are told. This panel
encourages papers addressing case studies of media art in diferent periods and regions, as well as methodologies as of how media art histories are told.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
The session will focus on questions concerning historiographies of media art.
Media art is generally understood as what used to be referred to as new media art.
New media art was seen as an emerging practice in the late 1990’s that soon lost
its pre-fix ‘new’. Both media art and contemporary art seemed to have entered a
post-media era that some understood as the end of new media, while for others it
meant that the media was everywhere. But in the 1990’s new media art was still
new and as such it seemed to be without history and thus free from any art
historical past. It was based on latest information technologies, and the artist’s
awareness of how those technologies were changing societies, cultures and thus
our world view. The awareness of the impact of digital technology on art
gradually aroused interest in art historical narratives that went beyond the newest
trends, and media art histories started to emerge. Those histories are told through
narratives that can be considered as equally new and raise questions as how media
art histories are told. They also raise questions as if media art history should be
considered a specific field or be integrated into a more general art historical
curriculum. New media art itself was seen as marginal in the art world, but when
it lost its newness it was not automatically considered part of the mainstream
contemporary art. Instead its existence has generated debates as whether its place
is within the contemporary art or not. Such question may seem anecdotal but in
concordance media art has been a marginal subject within art history. It thus
seems that debates about media art in relation to contemporary art have gone
through similar phases as older debates about older mechanical and electronic arts
like photography and video where distinction were made between photography
and artist’s photography, video art and artist’s video. Both photography and video
have their origins in new technologies, but today the digital technologies have
invaded older technologies and thus altered both photography and video. Media
art might thus enclose photography and video that have become digital just like
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media art. This can in itself be a subject of debate, but there are other factors to
be taken into consideration, as how those changes have altered the way art
historians look at the past. Those questions are of interest to this panel that would
encourage papers addressing case studies of media art in diferent periods and
regions, including individual artists, groups, areas and countries. It also
encourages papers addressing methodologies as of how media art histories are
told. They can include histories of older media and media arts, but also the
historization of more recent (new) media art practices. The panel will also take
into consideration proposals, addressing the dissemination of art works through
mediation. Such topics would emphasis that the fact the media and more recently
the digital revolution has not only had impact on how art is made, but how it
circulates. Such topics are relevant to changes caused by the immediacy of
information flow, through a global network that has afected older notion of the
periphery and the center that should be of a particular interest to regions that
used to think of themselves as situated on the margin.
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Arndís S. Árnadóttir, design historian PhD
arndisa@ismennt.is
TITLE:
Mapping local/regional design history in the Nordic periphery
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Design history is deeply rooted in art, industrial and architectural history and
seeks to link to other disciplines exploring material culture in a variety of ways,
including diverse actors such as designers, manufacturers, mechanics, craftsmen
etc. ─ even ´anonymous´ design. Primarily the aim of this session is to focus on
previously uncharted histories of design pertaining to marginal, non-centric, Nordic territories ─ and dicuss the changing role of design museums in documenting, researching and mediating design.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
In spite of the relatively recent discipline of design history, the inherent conflict
between the “lesser arts and fine arts”, as pointed out by William Morris in the
19th century, is still prevalent in art historical circles. Let´s therefore open up the
debate whether applied art / design is ´peripheral´ or ´center´ in reference to the
theme of this conference.
Design history, as a field of study, is deeply rooted in art history ─ as well as
industrial and architectural history. It also seeks to link to other disciplines
exploring objects, artefacts or material culture such as anthropology, histories of
ideas and culture, business history, craft history, history of science and technology
and sociology, to name a few. In recent years relevant forums on design history
and design studies have been challenging the design historical map, focusing on
peripheral territories that do not necessarily follow mainstream (or) trajectories
from the centers in Europe and USA. This remapping of design history has often
led to chance encounters and produced important “lost histories” ─ that explores
works and diverse actors in uncharted terrritories ─ of designers, manufacturers,
mechanics, craftsmen etc. ─ even ´anonymous´ design. Thus a more
comprehensive view of design history towards a coherent vision of what is center
and periphery in design has been achieved. Globally “Scandinavian design”, for
example, became ´center´ in design during a certain period of time, but recently
important alternative narratives of Scandinavian design have emerged, drawing
from fields as diverse as transport, engineering, packaging, photography, law,
interiors, and corporate identity. This remapping only covered histories from
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden — Iceland and other Nordic regions are
still more or less uncharted territories.
Documentation and the role of design museums are relevant issues in light of
design being a popular field of study at institutions of higher learning and design
history and design studies have become important academic fields. Formerly
museums of Decorative and Applied Arts have changed their names into Design
Museums, creating a diferent image and some attracting visitors in record
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numbers. Their function however, whether founded in the late 19th century or at
the end of the 20th century, as important centers of documentation on local /
national level, continue to be essential. In some areas research has been scarce and
design is being poorly documented and even misinterpreted.
The theme of the conference Mapping uncharted territories relates well to the
design historical discourse in terms of a dichotomy between ´center´ and
´periphery´, creating an excellent opportunity for this session to explore further
(but not limited to) the following:
•
What sets local –regional design apart from the global?
•
Studies and analysis on the material culture of design in a broad
sense, seeking alternative histories of design in reference to marginal,
non-centric, Nordic territories
•
What are the challenges and opportunities in documenting,
writing and mediating such stories?
•
Entertainment for the public or essential centers of research on
national/local level? The changing role of design museums.
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Jón Proppé, independent writer and curator
proppe@gmail.com
TITLE:
Mapping the Art of the West-Nordic Countries
SHORT ABSTRACT:
This session will try to establish an overview of the development of art in Iceland,
Greenland and the Faroe Islands and show how artistic production and discourse
in these countries share certain characteristics and concerns while other, no less
important traits divide them. On aim would be to define a discursive framework
that takes into account the special concerns of artists and art professionals in these
societies. Another central concern would be to discuss methods for supporting
West-Nordic artists in the Nordic context and stimulate cooperation and communication with artists and art professionals throughout the area. Approaches will
range from historiography, through contemporary practice to post-colonial theory.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
The discussion of art in the West-Nordic countries requires a diferent approach
to that used in the continental Nordic countries although for the most part issues
overlap in various ways. There are several external factors that must be considered,
such as: The isolation and size of these societies (57 000 people in Greenland,
50 000 in the Faroe Islands and 325 000 in Iceland); the relative weakness of institutions, in the art world and in general; small and undeveloped art market; colonial history and a complicated relationship with Denmark. There are also other
factors that seem to have influenced the development of art in these societies such
as: The artists’ relationship to the harsh climate and nature; struggles for independence and a corresponding search for national identity; rapid social change in
the twentieth century and the rapid adoption, in the art world, of modern Western approaches and styles. These and other issues can be seen in much of the art
produced in the West-Nordic countries and this session is dedicated to mapping
them and establishing a approach to their study.
Art and cultural heritage. The most obvious division can be made
between the Inuit culture in Greenland and the European culture of Iceland and
the Faroe Islands. However, significant diferences can also be found between the
latter two. More importantly, we should think about how artists in more recent
times have related to their particular heritage, how they have built on or rejected
it, reconciled it with international influences. In this it is useful to look to work
already done in other former colonies and dependencies, and to the theoretical
discourse on post-colonial art.
West-Nordic art in relation to Nordic and European cooperation.
Initiatives have been made to promote art projects and cooperation among the
West-Nordic countries and they are included in the broader Nordic cooperative
network. Necessarily, however, distance and the cost of travel and transportation
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limits such involvement. The search has been for viable models for cooperation
and papers would be sought on this subject.
State of research and international exposure. While a great deal has been
published in recent decades the focus has been mostly on Icelandic and Faroese
art. More discussion and research is needed on mapping West-Nordic art
generally and the art of Greenland in particular. This is also a prerequisite for
efectively promoting international exposure which, due partly to the lack of
research, has often been haphazard or led by political and economic concerns.
West-Nordic artists in the Nordic art context. From the sculptor Thorvaldsen
(born in Denmark of Icelandic parents) to the present day, West-Nordic artists
have been closely involved in the art scenes of the other Nordic countries. This
area and the issue of reciprocal influence have not been much studied and papers
would be welcomed that throw more light on the subject.
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SESSION ORGANIZER:
Rasmus Kjærboe, PhD student, Aarhus University
rkj@arthistory.dk, rasmusk@dac.au.dk
Karen Westphal Eriksen, PhD fellow, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies,
University of Copenhagen
kwe@hum.ku.dk
TITLE:
Marginal Modernisms within the Nordic countries
SHORT ABSTRACT:
This session seeks to address uncharted and peripheral modernisms in the visual
arts, focusing on cases anchored in the Nordic countries roughly 1900-1960. Art
produced in the Nordic countries is geographically already outside the heartland
of Europe, but in some cases marginalization has further been put in place by recent and otherwise welcome critical and methodological discourses. The session
seeks to address the periphery inside Europe by inviting case-based discussions
concerned with the alternate, the regional, the provincial – everything that has
been put aside, historically as well as the historiographically. Additionally, we look
for cases of marginal modernisms that challenge our hegemonic concept of historic modernism, expand it or bypass it.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
This session seeks to address uncharted and peripheral modernisms in the visual
arts, focusing on cases anchored in the Nordic countries roughly 1900-1960.
Western modernism has been widely criticized as white man’s art,
Eurocentric and imperialistic in its so-called universality. While institutional
critique has had some success in challenging modernism as institution, the focus
on dismantling discourse has not always been followed by the promised
rewritings that should open up new vistas and perspectives. Instead, an
unintended side efect of the deconstruction of a hegemonic discourse of art
history has often been to assist in further burying the heterogeneous field of
regional, European modernisms. Modernisms in plural have paradoxically just
been sent further into oblivion by revisionist art history.
Modernist art produced in the Nordic countries is geographically already
outside the heartland of Europe. Remnants of a traditional discourse still casts
this diverse field as primarily oriented toward one or several of a handful of
centres: Paris, New York, Berlin. Art works, movements and artists not easily
fitted to this model have had a hard time gaining scholarly recognition. Instead,
these have sufered the misfortune of being seen as doubly peripheral: removed
from the artistic centres, yet not quite ‘other’ enough to gain visibility through
postcolonial critiques of modernism.
Within the new global scholarship on art, Europe’s geographical periphery is
increasingly being charted and given a narrative. However, the periphery within
Europe still remains largely unspoken for. Kobena Mercer, Griselda Pollock,
16
Geofrey Batchen and other critics of western modernism have stringently
rethought notions of centre-periphery and provincialism by replacing hegemonic
modernism by regional and alternate currents. What, then, happens to the
provincial and regional modernisms inside so-called hegemonic European
Modernism?
Overall, this session wishes to draw on the critique of hegemonic modernism
and the concomitant rethinkings in terms of entangled and alternate currents, but
to turn this focus back on Europe itself. The session therefore considers papers on
diverse topics in order to address the periphery and the marginalized inside the
visual arts of the Nordic countries.
Papers should consider questions of marginalised and overlooked
modernisms in the Nordic countries, particularly through case-based studies.
Papers may be concerned with alternative centres such as periphery-to-periphery
networks within or going outside of Europe. Additionally, we invite papers on
modernisms oriented to the specifically regional or local, or on subjects
considered marginal to modernism, such as the strongly social or politically
invested. We further encourage focus on interactions between the hegemonic and
the marginal in modernism, as well as papers charting alternative modernisms
and aspects thereof in contrast to or negotiating hegemonic modernism. Papers
could also consider methodological questions of how to research overlooked
currents in the Nordic countries and the implications of positing alternative
centres or mapping alternate networks.
17
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Tonje H. Sørensen, PhD Candidate, University of Bergen
tonje.sorensen@gmail.com
Tove Kårstad Haugsbø, Ph.D. Candidate, KODE Bergen Art Museum
Tove.Haugsbo@kodebergen.no
TITLE:
Meaningless Landscapes? From National Roots to Transnational Routes
SHORT ABSTRACT:
In Art History and Visual Culture, the search for cultural roots and construction
of national narratives have limited the readings of landscape. This has even ob structed the transnational intertextualities within various media, such as painting,
photography, cinema and sculpture from circa 1840-1920. This session welcomes
papers dealing with these various media, addressing questions like, but not limited to, performativity of landscape outside of a national framework, bordercrossings and borderlands as sites in and of art, and explorations of the term “meaningless landscapes”. What happens when we seek to interpret landscapes in e.g.
the Nordic countries, Siberia, and Northern America with an emphasis on the
transnational? By tracking art's transnational routes, will we discover a "meaninglessness" in what we traditionally reckon as a national representation of landscape?
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Men sett nu at det slett ikke er det nasjonale som har interessert maleren i landskapet,
tvert imot noe ganske annet, det almene, dets egenskaper av plass for mennesket overhodet,
ikke nettopp for nordmenn, sa kan man ikke forlange noe nasjonalt preg over det. - Christian
Krogh, 1902.
But consider now that it is not at all the national which has made the painter interested in this
landscape, but rather something else, the common, the character as a place for mankind in
general, not only for Norwegians, then one cannot claim a national touch. - Christian Krogh,
1902.
The lament of the Norwegian painter Christian Krogh highlights the way in
which the genre of landscape has been interpreted through national and/or national romantic perspectives. Yet the fact remains that the interpretation of
landscapes and nature as somehow typically representations of the national has
been a mainstay in a majority of works within Art History and Visual Culture
from circa 1840–1920. To a larger degree, the search for cultural roots and
construction of national narratives have limited the readings of landscape and
nature, at times even obstructing the transnational intertextualities of art.
In engaging landscape art, Richard R. Brettell has used the provocative
term “meaningless landscapes” to describe Claude Monet’s On the Bank of
Seine at Benencourt (1868). While the title refers to a specific place, Brettell
argues that “there is nothing that makes it interesting as a landscape motif”.
Instead, we “should [...] interpret the work as a construction in paint that uses
this particular scene as its organisational scaffolding”. This session would like
to ask what happens when we seek to interpret landscapes of the northern
18
territories and marginal places, in e.g. The Nordic countries, Siberia, and
Northern America, through the lens of Brettell’s term “meaningless
landscape”. Does it allow us to break out of the national historiography and
instead embrace transnational readings?
To open up a reading of art, which emphasises the transnational, we
suggest to employ James Clifford’s term “routes” in addition to the more
bounded and stable “roots”. Routes indicate movement and interaction across
borders, be they national, regional or ethnic, which could lead to more
heterogeneous interpretations than the national narrative. One example might
be Patricia Berman who in her study seeks to look at the Skagen paintings
from the 1880s not as emblematic of something particularly Danish, but rather
as the modern, industrialised world’s response to nature.
This session will welcome papers dealing with various media, such as
painting, photography, cinema and sculptures from circa 1840–1920, and
considering questions like the performativity of landscape outside of a national
framework, bordercrossings and borderlands as sites in and of art, and
explorations of the term “meaningless landscapes”. These questions are not
exclusive, but rather meant as guidelines to recognize the many diverse
interpretations within the interplay between art and nature. For by tracking
art's transnational routes, will we discover a "meaninglessness" in what we
traditionally reckon as a national representation of landscape?
19
SESSION ORGANIZERS:
Mari Hvattum, Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Mari.Hvattum@aho.no
Mari Lending, Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Mari.Lending@aho.no
Wallis Willer, University of Kentucky
wmiller@uky.edu
TITLE:
Mediating Modern Architecture
SHORT ABSTRACT:
This session studies the emergence of modern architecture by examining the relationship between architecture and new public media in the 19th and early 20th
centuries. A marked shift in architectural publication took place in this period in
which the treatise was supplemented by genres capable of efficiently disseminating visual and textual information to a large audience beyond the academies. The
session, then, looks at how the new public sphere manifested itself architecturally
not only in the form of buildings but also as debates, programs, reactions and negotiations in and over public space, making architecture a key vehicle for what
Jürgen Habermas came to call the structural transformation of the public sphere.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
“[M]odern architecture only becomes modern with its engagement with the media" writes Beatriz Colomina in her ground-breaking study Privacy and Publicity:
Architecture and Mass Media from 1994. This session studies the emergence of
modern architecture by examining the relationship between architecture and new
public media in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A marked shift in architectural
publication took place in this period in which the treatise was supplemented by
genres capable of efficiently disseminating visual and textual information to a
large audience beyond the academies. The new public press played a particularly
important role in this process, promoting a debate that placed the built environment firmly at the centre of modern public culture. In the early 20th century,
newspapers and journals were supplemented by a rich array of popular genres
such as ladies magazines and advertisement, presenting both the private home
and the public monument as matters of profound cultural importance. Integrating words, images, and buildings – real or imaginary – in entirely new ways, these
media contributed to shape a new public discourse on architecture, and to propel
architecture into a novel visual culture.
The session invites papers that explore new forms of architectural discourse
in the 19th and the early 20th century, looking particularly at how architecture
was disseminated in new media and to new audiences. Newspapers, illustrated
journals, exhibition catalogues and ladies magazines provided their readers with a
rich chronicle of architectural culture and contributed to break the hegemony of
classicism by opening up a new and heterogeneous field of architectural
expression and deliberation. Furthermore, these media put architecture at the
20
service of an entirely new public; the modern bourgeoisie. The session, then,
looks at how the new public sphere manifested itself architecturally not only in
the form of buildings but also as debates, programs, reactions and negotiations in
and over public space, making architecture a key vehicle for what Jürgen
Habermas came to call the structural transformation of the public sphere.
We particularly welcome papers investigating the relationship between
words, images and buildings in new public media, and encourage
interdisciplinary contributions drawing on fields such as publication history and
word-image studies, in addition to architectural and art history. Along with
newspapers, magazines, journals, and catalogues, papers might look at
photographic albums, travel guides, adult education programs and textbooks. The
session invites papers from any part of the world to explore the public mediation
of modern architecture in the designated period; an urgent task, it seems, at a
time when public space is being rapidly reconfigured, both as a physical structure
and a mediated environment.
21
SESSION ORGANIZERS:
Marta Edling, PhD, Forskare Historiska institutionen Uppsala universitet,
Professor Konstvetenskap, Södertörns högskola
marta.edling@sh.se
Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir, PhD Art Research
bryndis@btinternet.com
Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, Associate Professor, University of Iceland
aesas@hi.is
TITLE:
Navigating in a landscape of conflicting views on artistic research : History, practices,
policies
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Artistic research has and is subject to many debates. In 2013 it was formally
integrated into art history through its critical implications in Documenta XIII one
of the main contemporary art events. Within artistic research there are diferent
opinions and emphasis at play and surveys have identified two main parallel
tendencies across the field. Still there is little information on these practices, their
efect or an analysis of the knowledge produced with in these. This session seeks
to shed some light on this important aspect of artistic practice with a view to
analyse core values and arguments.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Artistic research has during the last decades been subject to many extended and
often afected debates. Today the increasing significance of artistic research or art
as research cannot be ignored, and these practices have in fact already been
integrated into the current art-historical canon after its critical implications in
Documenta 13.
Even if this research is an established phenomenon its role and status
shifts. Artistic research projects can on the one hand be an integrated part of
academic praxis and simultaneously deviate from what is perceived as
fundamental academic values. This is not only due to the presence of art as part of
the research process and a presentation of results, but it also claims that artistic
processes produce a special kind of practice-based knowledge. In the ongoing
discussion on this seemingly ambivalent status, some suggest that the adjustment
to research templates divert energy from the content and spirit of the work
resulting in overly textual and overly theoretical artworks. Others point to the fact
that art as research processes and displays might be understood as the result of
long-term developments within art practice itself – and the diferent place art has
now in the world.
Surveys of the global development of artistic research, confirm this
problematic duality. They claim to find two parallel tendencies; on the one hand
models where the autonomy of art is stressed, and on the other hand hybrid
formats, more or less adherent to traditional academic ideals (see e.g Camp &
Siska 2011, Elkins 2013, Borgdorf 2011). The Nordic countries ofer in this
22
sense an interesting case. Here the history of artistic doctoral programs
demonstrates a shift from an early ‘academic’ phase with a written thesis, to fully
autonomous programs with distinctive artistic graduate degrees. In 2000 we can
see the first clear signs of this shift of focus in Finland, Norway and Sweden
(Karlsson 2002)
However, there is to date no research on the origins of this model, its
distinctive practices and policies, or its efects, and we know little about the
products of these activities as art or as a special kind of knowledge production.
Another relevant factor is the question how artistic research afects surrounding
institutions and practices. What sort of impact can be detected on knowledge
production, on artistic institutions, on artistic careers and on art in general?
The session welcomes contributions that shed light on this important
phase of the contemporary history of artistic research in the Nordic countries.
Papers could address higher education politics central for this development, or
concern themselves with discourse analysis of core values and arguments. Surveys
or discussions on art projects that have been awarded doctoral degrees are
welcome, as well as analyses on the importance (or not) of a doctoral degree for a
career in in the field of contemporary art. All contributions should however take
a meta perspective on the topic, either analytically or art historically. The session
aims for presentations of research on artistic research, not artistic research as such.
23
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Tania Ørum, Ass. Professor, Department for Cultural Studies and the Arts,
Comparative Literature and Studies in Modern Culture, Univ. of Copenhagen
tania@hum.ku.dk
TITLE:
Nordic Avant-Garde Movements after World War II
SHORT ABSTRACT:
After World War II the Nordic avant-garde movements are no longer as marginal
as before the war. There is a lively interaction with the European and the American art scene, and independent movements develop in the Nordic countries.
International connections are created by large institutions. But self-organised
networks among artists also connect the Nordic avant-garde to the rest of the
world. However, non-Nordic resident artists have rarely been included in national
art histories. Inter-Nordic co-operation and independent Nordic currents have
also remained largely invisible.
This session will discuss the positions of the Nordic avant-garde movements
in relation to the European and American art centres and the specific character of
the postwar avant-garde in the Nordic countries.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
After World War II the Nordic avant-garde movements are no longer as marginal
as before the war. There is a lively interaction with both the European and the
American art scene, the start of today’s global art scene, but independent movements also develop in the Nordic countries.
The international connections are partly due to the official networks of large
institutions such as the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. But self-organised
networks among artists, such as Fluxus and the Situationists, also help connect
the Nordic avant-garde to the rest of the world. Nordic artists such as Asger Jorn,
Öyvind Fahlström and Steina Vasulka and others make an international career in
Europe or the US. And individual artists from abroad , such as Dieter Roth,
Arthur Köpcke and Yoshio Nakajima, settle for a large part of their lives in the
Nordic countries.
Although art history has tended to describe the art of the centres as
dominant, and Nordic art as an echo of international developments, it seems that
non-Nordic resident artists have rarely been integrated into the national art
histories and museums. Nor has the inter-Nordic co-operation during the
postwar period been much visible in the Nordic art history of the period. Just as
the independent Nordic movements and contributions to international art history
in the postwar period have remained largely invisible in international art history
until very recently.
This session will discuss the positions of the Nordic avant-garde movements
in relation to the European and, increasingly, American art centres and the
specific character of the postwar avant-garde in the Nordic countries,
24
Papers should consider questions such as:
•
What are the new features of the postwar avant-garde in the Nordic countries?
•
Papers on this subject may include consideration of such subquestions as:
•
Whether the welfare state and public art funding leave a specific
Nordic imprint on postwar art? Whether international trends take the
same shape in (all of ) the Nordic countries? or whether the Nordic countries develop new kinds of art currents which are specific to the area?
•
What opportunities does the view from the Nordic countries offer?
•
Papers on this subject may include considerations of centre and
periphery, for instance what it means that the art history of the period has
mainly been written “from the centres” and has thus largely left out the
local art histories? and whether art history would look diferent or should
be written diferently in order to include art from non-central areas.
•
To what extent have international and inter-Nordic relations been
integrated into the art history of the Nordic countries?
•
Papers on this subject may consider what would be the theoretical
and methodological implications of doing so? And what the importance
of such interrelations is?
25
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Malin Hedlin Hayden, PhD/Assistant Professor Department of Art History
Stockholm University
malin.hayden@arthistory.su.se
Magdalena Holdar, PhD, Senior lecturer, Depy. of Art History, Stockholm Univ.
magdalena.holdar@arthistory.su.se
TITLE:
Performance As Visual Art In The Nordic Countries
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Performance art has been centre staged in narratives of post-war and contemporary art. Current research on performance art is broad but nonetheless theoretically
and geographically limited; especially regarding surveys circulating in higher education curricula. Despite a number of international publications, scholarly research on performance as a visual form of fine art in the Nordic countries is limited. Performance art as visual art does not need national translations or adjustments, yet its historic situation diverge between diferent countries in several aspects. Issues of paramount importance are the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological possibilities and/or constraints provided by the framing of performance as visual art, and how performance art is addressed and displayed within art
collections that call for specific legacies and archives.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
During the last five decades, performance art has been centre staged in narratives
of post-war and contemporary art, often described as a radically new method of
artistic practice. Despite a number of international publications on performance
art, scholarly research on performance as a visual form of fine art in the Nordic
countries is limited. Thus, a key field within artistic practices is almost non-existent as a research field in academia, which limits the possibilities to seriously ad dress it in art historical education. Whereas theories of how to interpret performance art as visual art does not need national translations or adjustments, its historic situation diverge between diferent countries in several aspects. For example,
in Sweden performance art emerged in situations and sites outside of a fine art
context and was not established as a “proper” art form until the 1990s, partly
through the appearance of the independent curator. The independent curator’s
entrance onto the art scene created a new balance and focus: performance did no
longer appear as a subcategory of dance, theatre and music but became the art for
alternative spaces. This shift has consequences for the theoretical and historical
contexts in which performance is inscribed, interpreted, collected, and taught.
Developments in recent years testify to an increasing interest and more
systematic inclusion of performance art in exhibitions and collections, both in
larger institutions such as MoMA and Whitney, and smaller Kunsthalles such as
Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall. Simultaneously, higher art educations in Sweden
and other countries have initiated courses and established professorships in
performance. This, however, highlights anew the lack of serious, in-depth,
26
investigations within the field of art history emphasizing the notion of art as a
particular legacy related to conceptual perspectives.
The session invites papers that present critical perspectives on and analyses of
performance as a visual art form, contemporary curating of performance art, the
presence of performance in the curriculum of higher art education, and its status
in contemporary art collections. Topical questions include, but are not restricted
to the following:
•
How can the diverse practices of performance art be theorized and
historicized when framed by a fine art concept?
•
What conceptual, theoretical, and methodological possibilities
and/or constraints are provided by the framing of performance as
visual art?
•
In what ways have contemporary curatorial practices and
interventions been informed by performance art, and vice versa?
•
How is performance art addressed and displayed within art
collections that, inevitably, call for specific legacies and archives?
Current research on performance art is broad but nonetheless theoretically and
geographically limited; especially regarding surveys circulating in higher education curricula. Amongst these are notably, RoseLee Goldberg's seminal historical
survey Performance Art, first published in 1979, and her Performance: live art
since the 60’s (1998), 2004, which remain the primary textbooks. Internationally,
numerous essays and art critique have been written as well as monographs on particular and by now canonized artists. The present situation can be exemplified by
the following titles: This is performance art, 2011, deals explicitly on Mel Brimfield’s work and its take on historiographical issues as integrated in her work, Jen
Harvie's Fair Play: art, performance and neoliberalism (2013) investigates a particular political potential of performance art, whereas the anthology Performing
memory in art and popular culture (2013) departs from the concept of memory
addressing performing arts in a broad sense. Two recent publications that both
deal with performance and live art in relation to representation, reenactments and
the concept of art are Rebecca Schneider’s Performing remains: art and war in
times of theatrical re-enactment (2011), and Perform ,repeat, record: live art in
history (2012) edited by Amelia Jones and Adrian Heathfield.
27
SESSION ORGANIZERS:
Dr. Melanie Klein, DFG Research Group “Transcultural Negotiations in the
Ambits of Art”, Freie Universitaet Berlin.
i.wunsche@jacobs-university.de
Prof. Dr. Isabel Wünsche, Sch. of Hum. and Social Sciences, Jacobs University.
melanie.klein@fu-berlin.de
TITLE:
Progressive Art Education and the Spread of Modernism beyond Europe
SHORT ABSTRACT:
In this session the interrelations between the emergence of modernist art and
ideas of progressive art education brought to art schools and workshops in Africa,
Asia, Australia and the Americas are examined by means of specific case studies.
The transformation of art educational concepts within cultural traditions and
local art scenes are brought into focus as are the relevance of gender roles,
reciprocal dynamics between educators and students in the production of art as
well as the impact of hierarchical structures and forms of agency within colonial
and postcolonial contexts. Art educational venues are perceived as contact zones
that formed modernist art beyond Europe through polyphonic theoretical and
practical approaches.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
The crucial role that progressive art education played in the spread, reception, and
adaptation of European Modernism beyond Europe has largely been neglected in
art history writing. The session examines the interrelations between modernist art
and contemporary concepts of progressive education and the role that art played
in Reformpädagogik. Discussing the educational activities of modernist artists and
art educators as well as the educational reform eforts at modernist art schools
that shaped the spread of Modernism to Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin and South
America, particular focus is on its reception and adaptation within the cultural
traditions and domestic art scenes of these regions. Furthermore, the session
wishes to contrast the various pedagogical eforts with the theoretical positions
and institutional policies of major exponents of modernist art history and to addresses gender roles in the production, dissemination, and adaptation of modernist art beyond the Western World.
Questions about what role art should play in Africa, Asia, Australia, or the
Americas, what cultural image or “inner” condition it should transport, how it
could be related to “traditional” creativity, and how it should be positioned in the
face of emerging modernisms were of prominent importance within the contact
zone of educational institutions. For example, European art teachers in South
Africa first established provisional art educational venues for Black students
within the curricula of mission schools and then as workshops and schools in
their own right. They transferred modernistic concepts from Europe – like the
concepts of authenticity and originality – into the African context yet were also
confronted with restricted material conditions as well as divergent conceptions
28
and expectations of their students.
A closer look at selected case studies reveals ambivalent and polyphonic
theoretical approaches of educators and diferent visual translations of students.
Here, the teachers’ attitudes seem to oscillate between the search for an
“authentic” idiom in the native art of the region and the claim to partake in
global archives and in the making of an art history that is imagined as universally
applicable. Students, however, follow diverse paths: some delve into the imitation
and interpretation of European models, others continue their studies abroad and
become part of a modern art world. After all, art educational institutions
perceived as transcultural contact zones exemplify a genesis of modern art from
Africa, Asia, Australia, or the Americas that was formed by difering and mutually
influencing perspectives rather than permanent homogeneous schemes.
Papers might explore, but are not limited to the following topics:
•
Roots and routes of modernist and avant-garde “travelling
concepts” in educational venues
•
Transformations and deviant definitions of such concepts
•
Material and intellectual context of art production and the
generation of art historical narratives
•
Definition of “agency” within contexts of limitations and
freedom
•
Dynamics of gender relations within educational contact
zones
We invite paper proposals to the sessions from a variety of fields, including art
history, art pedagogy, cultural history, visual culture, and anthropology.
29
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Charlotte Bydler, PhD in Art History, Lecturer, History and Theory of Art,
School of Culture and Education för kultur, Södertörn University
charlotte.bydler@sh.se
Mårten Snickare, PhD in Art History, Associate professor, Department of Art
History, Stockholm University
marten.snickare@arthistory.su.se
TITLE:
Resisting art world violence: Indigenous/Sámi art and material culture in a postperipheral view
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Since the seventeenth century, Sámi art works have been collected in Nordic capitals as a colonial part in a larger nation-state project. In distinction to the state’s
representative art world, Sámi artworks are mainly defined and displayed as crafts
or ethnography. This panel investigates institutional categorization and resistance
past and present. It looks at relations between on the one hand indigenous art
worlds and on the other hand museums and academia. Can they collaborate or is
it a better option to delink and form local communities? We want contributions
that address the dynamics of Sámi poetics and colonial guilt.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
With today’s resistance against industrial interests in the polar area,
indigenous/Sámi art history is topical. Since the seventeenth century, Sámi art
and material culture have constituted a colonial battlefield. In those days goavddis
(ceremonial drums) and other aesthetic objects were confiscated by state officials.
Today, the reduction of Sámi art continues through institutional exclusion and
self-justifying dichotomies such as art/ethnography and art/crafts. Through acts of
epistemic violence, ideas of centre and periphery are maintained. Art is what takes
place within the centre, defined by art academies, art museums, and academic art
history. In the peripheries there is ethnography, folk art, and crafts.
An artworld is an autopoetic conceptual world that creates its rules and mode
of being. The artworld system is made up of networked and partly overlapping
institutional practices. These ignore whatever falls beyond their operative
definitions of art and aesthetic values. Here, we want to move beyond the idea of
art worlds as necessarily tied to a historical institutional set-up and open up the
field to multiple art worlds.
Even critical terms such as post-colonial maintain established limits and
exclusions. Equal conditions in scholarship on the history and theory of art and
poetic production require un- learning established Eurocentrist privileges. The
expanding research field of Sámi art, architecture and crafts (Horsberg Hansen,
Snarby, et al.) calls on those who enjoy the privilege of “sanctioned ignorance”
(Spivak) to learn about its knowledge gaps. The challenge of institutionalizing
Sámi poetics is also known through doctoral dissertations and chairs in duodji,
Sámi crafts (Dunfjeld, Guttorm, et al.).
30
For this panel, we invite papers that deal with Sámi art and material culture
from the early modern period until today. We especially encourage papers that
question established borders and naturalised dichotomies of centre/periphery,
art/non-art. Papers may discuss, but are not limited to the following questions:
Who has the right to the Sámi cultural heritage? Since the seventeenth
century, Sámi art works have been collected and displayed in museums in
Stockholm and other state capitals. However, in recent years objects are
transferred to new museums in the Sámi region such as Ájtte in Jokkmokk, today
Sweden’s main museum for Sámi afairs. Is this a new de-centrering course of
development?
Sámi artworks are mainly defined as crafts or ethnography (i.e. not art) and
collected and displayed accordingly. How do these institutional categorizations
work? Are there working strategies for blurring borders in museums and
academia?
What can we learn from previous resistance to epistemic violence?
Artists have reacted against mining interests in e.g. Giron/Kiruna and
Gallok/Kallak with radical projects and manifestations. How have methods and
expressions changed since the 1979-1982 Uprising over the exploitation of the
river Alta in northern Norway? Are the national majority institutions and art
scenes involved or is this an occasion for delinking and forming local
communities like the Maze/Masi group did?
How much does research in Sámi poetics owe its current strength to colonial
guilt and frequent flyers who publish in global English?
31
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Clarence Burton Sheffield, Jr., Ph. D, Associate Professor, History of Art,
College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology
cbsfaa@rit.edu
TITLE:
The Aesthetics of the Margin: The Role of Global Literary theory for Scandinavian
Modernism and Nordic Art History
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Recent scholarship has underscored the key role of Scandinavian literature within
European modernism. An “aesthetics of dependency” emerged at the Scandinavian periphery according to Leonardo Lisi, which sought to negotiate the gap
between urban and rural, modern and anti-modern, ideal and real, optimism and
pessimism, homogeneity and heterogeneity, unification and fragmentation. Its
impact was decisive. Can this notion also elucidate the importance of Nordic art
within modern art history? Did Nordic art demonstrate a comparable power of
resistance to the center? What representational forms did this take, and were
there also occasional instances of indiference to such a strategy? Was the belief
that the artistic center was moving north itself, naïve and a cliché? Papers in this
session might consider the following sorts of questions with respect to Nordic art:
the role of exile and a longing for home, the fluidity of identity, the significance
of cultural interaction, cooperation and interchange, the category of the artistwriter and the writer-artist, as well as what constituted formal innovation and the
avant-garde.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Recent scholarship by Leonardo Lisi, Arnold Weinstein, James McFarlane, and
others, has underscored the central role of Scandinavian literature within the development of European modernism. Instead of a marginal, peripheral status, authors such as Kierkegaard, Ibsen, Strindberg, Jacobsen, Brandes and Hamsun, to
name only a few—exerted a deep and lasting power on James Joyce, Henry James,
Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Franz Kafka, as well as Walter
Benjamin, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Martin Heidegger. Did a similar relationship exist for Scandinavian artists? In other words, are there important parallels between
the influence and impact of Scandinavian literature on European modernism, and
that of Scandinavian art? Can literary theory help to elucidate the importance of
Nordic art within modern art history? Do literary innovations and radical, avantgarde impulses have a similar trajectory in Nordic visual culture? Immanuel
Wallerstein, in particular, has argued that culture is precisely the one domain in
which the peripheries can mount a meaningful resistance to the economic and
political hegemony of the center. It is important to critically examine how Nordic art has exercised such a power of resistance, and what representational forms
this has taken, as well as to identify instances of the occasional indiference to
such a strategy.
Nordic writers and artists were acutely aware of their peripheral position and
32
the irony of often needing to obtain recognition and legitimacy abroad, before it
could ensue at home. They frequently engaged in extended periods of voluntary
exile. Transnationalism, in other words, is an important link between Nordic
writers and artists, as well as extremely fluid notions of identity, border-crossing,
cultural interaction, and interchange. In certain instances, this required a
mediation of the tensions between urban and rural, modern and anti-modern,
ideal and real, optimism and pessimism, homogeneity and heterogeneity,
unification and fragmentation. Negotiating this tension or gap is the key to the
aesthetics of dependency traced by Lisi’s alternative account of European
modernism, which he identifies as first emerging within the peripheral context of
nineteenth-century Scandinavian culture. Many Nordic artists were themselves
writers, and they often shared an intense camaraderie with their literary
contemporaries. Edvard Munch and Christian Krohg are two prime examples.
Furthermore, writers such as Ibsen and Strindberg were also artists. The tendency
to work across media, therefore, is an important aspect of Nordic art, and it
warrants further reflection and close scrutiny. It suggests a more nuanced and
subtle relationship between the literary and artistic spheres of Scandinavian
modernism. Papers in this session might consider the following sorts of questions
with respect to Nordic art:
•
Did its marginality and peripheral status permit a more
experimental and less fixed notion of medium?
•
Was monumentality and public art more significant; what
factors contributed to this?
•
How did cosmopolitan exile and a longing for home (the
provincial) condition national identity?
•
Were gender, class, and racial diference respected more,
and was there a stronger sense of cooperation?
•
What were the criteria for artistic and cultural innovation?
•
Was there a greater tolerance for foreign impulses, and
more willingness to engage with them?
•
Did the center’s economic and political power encounter
more resistance; what specific forms did this take?
•
Was the optimistic belief that the artistic center was
moving north itself, naïve and a cliché?
33
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Guðrún Harðardóttir, The National Museum of Iceland
gudrun.hardardottir@gmail.com
TITLE:
The Mini as a reflection of the Macro. Miniatures as source material
SHORT ABSTRACT:
This session proposes to study the language of miniatures and how they reflect
general trends and symbolic threads of a shared culture of each time. How miniatures could be used as source material for the general.
In this context, seals are of great interest as they are official visual validations
of the authority of individuals or institutions. The same applies to heraldry in
general.
Papers should consider questions such as: How useful are miniatures as a
source material for the stylistic development of a certain period? Do miniatures in
diferent means tell similar stories about the general at each period of time? How
is the general reflected in the particular? How do, for example, miniatures
represent ships or ecclesiastical utensilia?
FULL DESCRIPTION:
Modern logos and medieval miniatures share the common feature of being small
scale representations of a general visual culture. As part of the general trends of
each time, miniatures tend to be more legible in the context of their own time of
production than when they are seen out of context. This session proposes to study
the language of miniatures and how they reflect general trends or types of a
shared culture of each time. How miniatures could be used as source material for
the general. It would be of interest to examine the symbolic conciousness of society at certain periods of time. How did, for example, the symbolic thought of the
midde ages present itself on the pages of manuscripts or in the decoration of the
utensilia of the church?
In this context, seals are of great interest as they are official visual validations
of the authority of individuals or institutions. The same applies to heraldry in
general and the relationship of miniatures to the symbolic reality of a certain
period. The question of authority and identity is very relevant as well as what
kind of reality the miniatures reflect. What kind of truth or propaganda is
represented in this kind of media? To what extent are these representations
relevant to the history of buildings, ships, liturgical vestment as well as general
ornament of each period? How much do miniatures in manuscripts present the
physical reality of the time? What kind of visual source material are they?
34
Papers should consider questions such as: How useful are miniatures as a
source material for the stylistic development of a certain period? Do miniatures in
diferent means tell similar stories about the general at each period of time? How
is the general reflected in the particular? How do, for example, miniatures
represent ships or ecclesiastical utensilia?
35
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Ann-Sofie Nielsen Gremaud, PhD in Visual Culture
annsofiegremaud@gmail.com
Gry Hedin, PhD in Scandinavian art and literature
gryhedin@hotmail.com
TITLE:
Uncharted nature: Nordic Landscapes in the Era of the Anthropocene
SHORT ABSTRACT:
In the era of the anthropocene, artists and scientists are facing a new paradigm in
their attempts to map nature. This session focuses on art as Anthropocene laboratory where human control, mapping, and aestheticizing of landscape is thematised. It is our aim to cultivate a discussion of how art has interacted – and still interacts – with the natural sciences in interpreting the Antropocene in relation to
Nordic landscapes. We want to focus on contemporary art but also want to bring
forward previously overlooked connections between contemporary and historical
representational practices as human impact on landscape as well as the difficulty
of controlling nature is a theme that artists and scientists have dealt with from c.
1800.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
The Anthropocene thesis, that human activities have had a significant and irreversible impact on the Earth’s ecosystems, was formulated by Crutzen and Stroemer in the 2000s. Thus today, artists and scientists are facing a new paradigm in
their attempts to map nature. Currently this thesis is high on the agenda and has
placed the Arctic as a new geopolitical center. Thus a region previously defined as
periphery has turned to the center of attention, and a discourse that is inevitable
in the Nordic region is influencing the way landscape and nature is understood.
We wish to discuss how artists’ conceptualizations of the landscape of the
West Nordic region and Scandinavia have contributed to the development of this
thesis. Currently artists are involved in the new conceptualization of the Arctic as
a region where natural resources and melting ice has made the relationship
between man and nature a primary focus. The thesis states that the era starts with
industrialism when steam engines left traces in the geological strata as analyses of
polar ice cores have revealed. Indeed human impact on landscape as well as the
difficulty of controlling nature is a theme that artists and scientists have dealt with
from c. 1800, and we want to address the historic links between contemporary art
and earlier practices as these are yet to be examined and discussed.
Thus today and historically, science and art are in close interaction in the
interpretation of the Anthropocene. Though their modes of representation are
diferent, they share a common desire for insight and a wish for a coming to
terms with our place in nature. The objective of this session is to investigate
relationships between these diferent representational cultures, along with their
respective research methods. Here is a point of convergence for the – often
diferent – questions that art and science pose. Interfaces emerge between the
36
practices and foci in relation to landscape as research field for interpretation and
representation of environmental changes. Thus this session focuses on art as
Anthropocene laboratory where human control, mapping, and aestheticizing of
landscape is thematised. It is our aim to cultivate a discussion of how art has
interacted – and still interacts – with the natural sciences in interpreting the
Antropocene in relation to Nordic landscapes and to bring forward previously
overlooked connections between contemporary and historical representational
practices.
Questions dealt with in this session could be (but are not limited to) the following:
•
How do artists deal with the Anthropocene in their depiction
of Nordic landscapes?
•
The influence of artists on scientists in relation to the
Antropocene.
•
The collaborations between scientists and artists in the
investigation of Nordic landscapes.
•
Alternative discourses and views on climate change in Nordic
art.
•
The influence of sciences such as anthropology, geography,
geology and biology on Nordic landscape art.
•
The relationship between technological developments and
artistic approaches.
37
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Dagný Heiðdal, MA in Art Theory, National Gallery of Iceland
dagny@listasafn.is
Steinar Örn Atlason, MA in Philosophy, National Gallery of Iceland
steinar@listasafn.is
TITLE:
Uncharted Photography: On the relationship between Photography and other Media,
particularly Painting, in Nordic Pictorial Tradition
SHORT ABSTRACT:
The main objective of the session is to investigate the historical and artistic relationship between photography and painting from the mid nineteenth century to
the present times in Scandinavia. This relationship is complicated in many ways
and is related to pictorial representation in general, that is pictorial types and visions, and the ideological, historical and social grounds of picture making.
Welcome are also papers that further explore the relationship between
photography and other media e.g. graphic arts, happenings, installations,
performances and videos. Interesting things to explore in regard to the new media
are art and the film still, the new possibilities that digital images create and the
implications that those images have with regards to art, authenticity and truth
etc.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
The main objective of the session is to investigate the relationship between photography and painting from the mid nineteenth century to the present times in
Scandinavia.
In a recent general account of Icelandic history of art, Íslensk listasaga. Frá
síðari hluta 19. aldar til upphafs 20. aldar, little attempt is made to treat
photography as an artistic medium and therefore to define the historical
relationship between photography and painting. The session is born as a response
to the criticism on the methodological and ideological underpinnings of the
work. In fact, the relationship is quite important in Iceland as it is the only
country in Europe that had not established a pictorial tradition when
photographers started to make pictures of the almost uncharted territory, and
where photographers were actually forerunners of painters with regards to, for
example, the landscape tradition.
The practice and experiments with painting and photography in the works of
Edvard Munch and August Strindberg, the most famous Scandinavian artists who
have worked and developed their art using both mediums, is well know and leads
way into modern practices of photography with regards to portraiture and selfimage, and artistic-scientific speculations. But how have Scandinavian artists used
these mediums since and how have photography and painting afected each other
throughout the 20th century?
In Reisubókarkorn the nobel laureate Halldór Laxness wrote on the
relationship between photography and painting and made a clear distinction
38
between the mechanical copy of the photographer and the creative work of the
painter. The relationship between the two mediums is much more complicated
than the opposite mechanical copy / original creation indicates, and is related to
pictorial representation in general, that is pictorial types and visions, and the
ideological, historical and social grounds of picture making.
The session explores the relationship between photography and painting
through these questions and concepts, and is at the same time directed at the
concept of art and the question of what is art.
Welcome are also papers that further explore the relationship not only
between photography and painting, but also between photography and other
media e.g. graphic arts, happenings, installations, performances and videos.
Interesting things to explore in regard to the new media are art and the film still,
the new possibilities that digital images create and the implications that those
images have with regards to art, authenticity and truth etc.
This session welcomes papers considering the above mentioned mediums, the
concepts that define them and the historical and artistic relationship between
photography, painting and other media in Scandinavia and in general.
39
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Renja Suominen-Kokkonen, PHD, Senior Lecturer in Art History, Adjunct
Professor at the Universities of Helsinki and Turku
Renja.Suominen-Kokkonen@helsinki.fi
Hanna Kemppi, MA, University of Helsinki
hanna.kemppi@helsinki.fi
TITLE:
Unwanted Monuments & The Silenced Pasts
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Monuments and memorials can mark a clear distinction with written history, forcing us to look at things through their presence alone. Complex historical events
and narratives are crystallized in these physical artefacts. Alois Riegl already observed that in reality not all art monuments are valued on an equal basis, because
the contemporary values of scholars and political decision-makers afect choices
and actions. Since explaining the past also influences the future, it is relevant to
find diferent alternatives to our practices.
This session aims at challenging art history practices, the way how the
discipline has evaluated, analysed, and understood monuments of silenced pasts.
And asks, are we ready to deal with complex questions of the past, including the
marginal, the forgotten?
FULL DESCRIPTION:
It is not irrelevant how a society explains its own past, how we have arrived here
where we are. With the image of history, societies also control the present, and in
many cases the images of history are quite selective. Forgetting is one part of the
process of de-politicizing the past. It creates a past with which people can live, a
pleasant picture of one’s own history. The pressing issue is then how these histories are told, what sources have been used, who tells them, who benefits from them
and who does not. In this respect, monuments and memorials can mark a clear
distinction with written history, forcing us to look at things through their presence alone. Complex historical events and narratives are crystallized in these physical artefacts. Alois Riegl already observed that in reality not all old art monuments are valued on an equal basis, because the contemporary values of scholars
and political decision-makers always afect choices and actions.
In a recent publication, Matthew Rampley has noted that heritage practices
play a key role in providing ongoing political projects to construct national,
regional, and super-national identities. Cultural plurality has not necessarily been
a central issue when maintaining national heritage, and the problems of how
people should react to a dissonant heritage that does not conform to the
prevailing political, cultural, and religious norms of the majority have posed a
haunting question. Cultural heritage is not something once lost and then found,
but instead the result of active processes of choices at a given present moment.
Since explaining the past at many levels also influences the future, it is relevant to
40
find diferent alternatives to our practices. Also Claire Farago has stressed the
ongoing debates about the ownership of cultural property, which involve not only
the physical remains of the past but also, and very importantly, our perceptions of
the past and our articulations of these views. She asks what our responsibilities are
as art historians. Are we ready to deal with complex questions of the past,
including the marginal, the forgotten and the problematic?
This session aims at challenging art history practices, the way how the
discipline has evaluated, analysed, and understood monuments of silenced pasts.
With reference to heritage, the session emphasizes contradictions, repressed pasts.
The papers can deal with the questions of the ownership of cultural property, the
questions of whose interpretation counts, and of whose past is told. The
unwanted past may include erasures of architectural and other monuments of
local, regional, or national importance.
41
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Dr. des. Sarah Timme (née Lütje) Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Institut für Skandinavistik
timme@em.uni-frankfurt.de
TITLE:
Vikings, Gods and Heroes. Northern Antiquity in Visual Art after the Middle Ages
SHORT ABSTRACT:
The session asks for the post-medieval reception of Northern antiquity in visual
art, for artworks inspired by Old Norse literature or covering other subjects from
the Northern past. There has been an interest in such subjects from the Renaissance on – in the early modern era quite sporadic but increasing from the end of
the 18th century, then serving as an alternative and complement to the classical
tradition. During the 19th century the subjects spread into mass culture as well
(book illustration, advertising) and the interest has not waned until today (e.g.
Jonathan Meese). The session welcomes talks concerning iconographic traditions,
sources, formal representation, contexts … of the artworks.
FULL DESCRIPTION:
The session asks for the post-medieval reception of Northern antiquity in visual
art, for artworks inspired by Old Norse literature (e.g. Poetic Edda, Prose Edda,
Sagas) or covering other subjects from the Northern past (e.g. Vikings, rune
stones or burial mounds). There has been an interest in such subjects from the
Renaissance on, though in the early modern era it was quite sporadic (e.g. book
illustrations in Johannes Magnus’ Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque
regibus [1554] or the Kronborg Series commissioned by the Danish king
Christan IV. in 1637) but became increasing strong from the end of the 18th century. In the context of Classicism and the Romantic Movement Northern antiquity served as an alternative and complement to the classical tradition for
artists such as Henry Fuseli, William Blake or Nicolai Abildgaard. During the
19th century plenty of artworks were produced that intersected with these interests, in sculpture and painting (Bengt Erland Fogelberg, Peter Nicolai Arbo) as
well as in the genres of the emerging mass culture: book illustration and later on
advertising. In Germany especially, but also in other countries, Richard Wagner’s
operatic adaptation The Ring of the Niblungs (1876) also led to a spread of the
subject through the visual arts. Two strands of reception can be distinguished
here: a conservative and nationalistic one in the context of primarily German
Wagnerism (featuring little known artists such as Herrmann Hendrich or Franz
Stassen), and a more international and modernistic response represented by artists
mostly concerned with the aesthetic quality of Wagner’s work (e.g. Henri FantinLatour, Odilon Redon, Edward Burne-Jones). The interest in these subjects has
not waned during the 20th and 21st centuries as artists such as Anselm Kiefer,
Bjørn Nørgaard and lately Jonathan Meese all treat subjects derived from Northern antiquity.
This immense field has received little attention from researchers until now.
42
There are some surveys on reception primarily in Scandinavia (e.g. Grandien
1987, Larsson 2001, Haavardsholm 1998, Stenroth 2012) and a few exhibition
catalogues (e.g. Wilson 1997, Allzén 1990). Also the Wagnerian strand has
attracted some attention (eg. Richard Wagner 2005). However, very little has
been written regarding reception outside Scandinavia, and there are a lack of
thorough case studies and almost no research conducted on popular images not
traditionally regarded as fine art (book illustrations, advertising, etc).
The session therefore seeks to assemble researchers on this topic to help build
a network that is still lacking. It aims therefore to present a survey of the state of
research in the broad field outlined above and welcomes talks referring to the
following topical questions:
•
How is Northern antiquity represented in artworks?
•
What iconographic traditions can be described?
•
Which type of formal representation is chosen for the subjects?
•
What are the sources the artists depend on?
•
Which texts and images transmit the knowledge of the subjects to
the artists? In which contexts do the artworks emerge?
Reykjavík represents a very apt venue for this session given the number of medieval textual sources that are of Icelandic origin.
43
SESSION ORGANIZER:
Ylva Sommerland, Ph.D. Art History and Visual Studies, Un. of Gothenburg.
ylva.sommerland@arthist.gu.se
Margareta Wallin Wictorin , PhD, senior lecturer in Art History and Visual
Studies, Linneaus university
margareta.wallin-wictorin@lnu.se
TITLE:
Writing comics into art history and art history into comics research.
SHORT ABSTRACT:
Comics and graphics novels are characterised by an intermedial structure combining words and images. Although clearly a material where the visual aspects stand
as key features, comics have not been given much research attention in the art historical discipline. We think it is about time to write comics deeper into art history, and discuss art historical methods in comics research.
Papers at this session should consider questions such as:
•
Why have comics been so scarcely included in Art historical studies?
•
How could comics be included in art historical studies?
•
How can Art history contribute to the development of methods
and theories regarding comics?
FULL DESCRIPTION:
During the winter 2013-14 the Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration in Paris
showed the exhibition Albums – Bande dessinée et immigration. 1913-2013. It
presented comics created by 120 artists telling diferent stories from one hundred
years of worldwide migration. Other interesting examples of sequential art can be
found in the anthology Kolor Klimax. It contains comics from all the Nordic
countries, and shows a rich variety of genres and styles, from bold or tiny black
and white to monochrome or polychrome lines and shapes.
Comics and graphics novels are characterised by an intermedial structure
combining words and images. Although clearly a material where the visual aspects
stand as key features, comics have not been given much research attention in the
art historical discipline. Sequential and narrative elements of comics tend to place
the media among literary and language studies. Exceptions from this are David
Carrier (2000), Lena Johannesson (1979, 1986) and David Kunzle (1973, 1990,
2007) who have elaborated on art historical aspects. On a Nordic level comics
have quite recently started to be included in art historical research (e.g.
Mejhammar, 1999 ; Eriksson, 2006, Sommerland, 2007, 2011, 2012 ; Wallin
Wictorin, 2011, 2013).
Researchers in other disciplines have elaborated more on the subject.
Regarding research on the formal structure of comics the most acclaimed
attempts have been done by using structuralistic and semiotic theories as
theoretical and methodological tools. (Groensteen, 2007; Groensteen, 2013;
Magnussen, 2000, Postema, 2013). Recent publications deal with comics from
44
historical, cognitive and pedagogical perspectives (Babic, 2014; Kukkonen, 2013
and 2013; Syma and Weiner (eds.), 2013), and a number of new books and
articles argue for linguistic characteristics of comics. (Cohn, 2013; Miodrag,
2013). Autobiographical and feministic perspectives on comics are treated in
books by Chute (2010) and El Refaie (2012).
Furthermore, researchers from other fields than art history are starting to
discuss the relation between comics and art, e.g. Bart Beaty in Comics versus art
(2012). In the last chapter of his book Comics and Narration (2013), ( Bande
dessinée et narration, 2011), Thierry Groensteen poses the question: “Is comics a
branch of contemporary art?”
We think it is about time to write comics deeper into art history, and discuss
art historical methods in comics research. Papers at this session should consider
questions such as:
•
Why have comics been so scarcely included in Art
historical studies?
•
How could comics be included in art historical studies?
•
How can Art history contribute to the development of
methods and theories regarding comics?
•
Examples of how art historical and visual aspects have
been included in Comics research.
•
Examples of artists and art works related to comics and
how to do research about them.
45