AUTUMN TERM 2007


watts Symposium 2007: G F Watts: Art & Social Concerns

Thursday 20 and Friday 21 September 2007
9.30 – 17.00, Thursday 20 September, Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton, Guildford, Surrey GU3 1DQ
9.30 – 17.30, Friday 21 September, Kenneth Clark, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
Speaker(s): Anne Anderson (Senior Lecturer, Southampton Institute), Mark Bills (Curator, Watts Gallery), Barbara Bryant (Consultant Curator and Author G F Watts: Portraits of Fame & Beauty in Victorian Society), Julia Dudkiewicz (Assistant Curator, Watts Gallery), Veronica Franklin Gould (Author GF Watts: The Last Great Victorian and Curator of The Vision of G.F. Watts), Christopher Jordan (Curator, South London Gallery), Paul Nelson (Course Leader, Fine Art, University College for the Creative Arts), Leoneé Ormond (Professor Emerita, King’s College London), Julian Treuherz (Former Keeper of Art Galleries, National Museums Liverpool), Alex Werner (Senior Curator, Museum of London), Professor Michael Wheeler (Chairman, Ruskin Society and Visiting Professor of English, Southampton University)
Ticket/entry details: Thursday 20 September - £40, Friday 21 September - £45, Thursday & Friday - £75 (all prices include lunch and refreshments)
Please include payment with your booking, making cheques payable to ‘Watts Gallery’ and send with your completed booking form to: Tamsin Williams, Symposium Co-ordinator, Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton, Guildford, Surrey GU3 1DQ. Alternatively places can be booked by credit or debit card over the telephone on 01483 810235.
Through the generosity of The Derek Hill Foundation, there are a number of bursaries. For details, or for any further information, please contact Tamsin Williams at Watts Gallery (address above) on 01483 810235 or email tamsin.wattsgallery@yahoo.co.uk
Organised by: Watts Gallery and Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum
Further information: This two-day symposium exploring the impact of key social issues on the work of the Victorian artist, George Frederic Watts OM RA, is presented by the Watts Gallery in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum. It will bring together experts in the fields of Victorian art, history and literature to consider how Watts and his contemporaries reacted to the social conditions of the poor and dispossessed. It will also examine the legacy of their pioneering responses, which can still be felt today, including Watts’ support of philanthropic movements that instigated the ethos of ‘Art for All’.
Thursday’s proceedings will conclude with a reception and an opportunity for delegates to view the Watts Gallery. There will also be a reception to close the symposium on Friday.
View Programme

 


 

Between Culture and Capital:
Art, Institutions and Corporate Patronage

13.30 – 18.00 Wednesday 10 October (with registration from 1pm)
10.30 – 18.00 Thursday 11 October (with registration from 10.00am)
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre 

 

photograph of woman reclining on a branch with guitar cases around her
Swetlana Heger. Playtime (SH& Purification Garcia, photographed by Marcus Gaab), 2006. Photograph courtesy of COMA Berlin, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris & Purification Garcia

 

Speaker(s):
Alexander Alberro (University of Florida), Sabine Breitwieser (Generali Foundation), Sue Daniels (Arts & Business), Deborah Doane (Sustainable Consumption, WWF-UK), London), Swetlana Heger (artist, Berlin), Mark Rectanus (University of Iowa), Julian Stallabrass (Courtauld Institute of Art), Jaime Stapleton (Birkbeck College), Chin-Tao Wu (Academica Sinica, Taiwan), Carey Young (artist, London)


Ticket/entry details: To book a place: £10 per day (£5 concessions, Courtauld staff and students) including coffee and tea. Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Coordinator & Administrator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Between Culture and Capital conference'. Or call 020 7848 2785/2909 to make a credit card booking. Or, for further information, send an email to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk
Organised by: Dr. Julian Stallabrass and Jeannine Tang
Further information: This two-day conference was inspired by a work of art by Carey Young, entitled Image Transfer, in which Young and collaborator Deborah Doane teach participants the skills to research potential corporate sponsors. The conference addresses issues raised by Image Transfer, to examine conditions under which cultural capital is produced and traded in relationships between art, art institutions and their corporate sponsors. The conference focuses on art practice and production from the 1990s onwards, emerging from 1970s and 80s state policies and culture supporting intersections of art and business patronage. The conference will look at the aesthetics of the neo-liberal economy, corporate social responsibility, the interface of arts policy and public goods, and the role of art consultancies and/or art-business agencies in fostering relationships between the arts and corporate sponsors. Institutions supporting and exhibiting art production will be considered in relation to branding and fashion, within the spaces of the museum and gallery, and the resulting changes and innovations in curatorial and exhibition practices navigating courses between art production and sponsorship. The conference will also examine changing forms of art-work and labour, legacies of institutional critique and post-conceptual artistic strategies for both critical and collaborative involvement with corporate funders. This event has been made possible through the support of LCACE (London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise) and the British Academy.

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Beyond Borat: Contemporary Art in Kazakhstan

Saturday, 13 October 2007
11.00 – 14.30, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre

 


Rustam Khalfin, Northern Barbarians, Part II, Love Races, 2000 Video still, courtesy of the artist

 

Speaker(s):
Valeria Ibrayeva (Director, Soros Centre for Contemporary Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan), Nariman Skakov (University College, Oxford)

Ticket/entry details:
Open to all, free admission.

Organised by:
Aliya Abykayeva-Tiesenhausen


Further information:
Kazakhstan has been attracting increased attention since the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the reasons for this is its very rich natural resources and an unprecedented amount of and support for foreign investment. Another reason is the appearance of novel forms of contemporary art practices such as performance, video, experimental photography, etc. Learning from their western counterparts these Central Asians produced work which seemed like a very fast-forward history of late 20th century art. Similarly to their Russian counterparts they draw references from the common Soviet past. Yet their reflections do not always coincide. Kazakhstan’s nomadic and Islamic traditions, both heavily repressed during the Soviet period, play an important role both in terms of the construction of national identities and as a source of criticism. At the same time Kazakhstan’s position as a peripheral state, bowed to Russia’s position as the ‘Imperial’ centre. Today, Kazakhstan’s artists prefer to seek ‘approval’ and artistic exchange in the West. The first major appearance of Kazakhstan’s new art took place at the Venice Biennale in 2005, as part of a Central Asian pavilion curated by Viktor Misiano. Last year a film was made documenting Waldemar Januszczak’s adventures in the steppes of Kazakhstan’s contemporary art world. Curating and presenting Kazakhstan’s art is the main theme of this symposium. It is held in conjunction with pioneering video and performance artist Rustam Khalfin’s first exhibition in London: Love Races at the White Space Gallery (4 October – 2 November 2007). This symposium has been made possible through the support of the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation. 


 

Conference

Louise Bourgeois
Saturday 27 October 2007
10.30 – 18.00, Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium
Speaker(s): include psycho-analyst Juliet Mitchell (University of Cambridge), curator Frances Morris (Tate) and art-historians Linda Nochlin (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University), Briony Fer (University College London) and Mignon Nixon (Courtauld Institute of Art)
Ticket/entry details: £20 (£15 concessions), Price includes entry to the exhibition. Booking is recommended. Please contact the Tate for tickets. You can book online via https://tickets.tate.org.uk or call 020 7887 8888.  Quote 'Louise Bourgeois Symposium'
Organised by: Tate Modern and Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum
Further information: On the occasion of the Louise Bourgeois exhibition this conference brings together a fascinating range of perspectives on the extraordinary work of this artist who has worked in dialogue with most of the major artistic movements of the twentieth century, but has always followed her own path, powerfully inventive and at the forefront of contemporary practice. The conference is a collaboration between Tate Modern and the Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum.

Conference

Colour Photography: From Autochrome to Cibachrome

Saturday, 10 November 2007
10.00 – 18.00, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre (registration from 9.30am)

 


Russell Lee, Untitled Cityscape, Norway, 1968, Kodachrome

 

Speaker(s): J B Colson (University of Texas at Austin); Anthony Downey (Sotheby’s Institute); Anne Hammond (University of the West of England); Helen James (The Photographers’ Gallery); Alexandra Moschovi (University of Sunderland); Harriet Riches (Middlesex University); Pam Roberts (Independent curator and writer); Abraham Thomas (V&A Museum); Gawain Weaver (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Ticket/entry details:  Tickets are £10. Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Coordinator & Administrator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Colour Photography: From Autochrome to Cibachrome’ conference. Or call 020 7848 2785/2909 to make a credit card booking. For further information contact ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk.
Organised by: Dr Catherine Grant
Further information: This conference, which has been organised in collaboration with The Photographers’ Gallery, considers the fluctuating status of colour photography, from its early, paradoxical associations with artifice in relation to the ‘realism’ of black and white, to its current ubiquity in the art world and beyond. Associated with fashion and advertising for much of the twentieth century, the significance of colour in a wide range of photographic projects has not been adequately explored. As 2007 marks the centenary of the Autochrome, arguably the first practical colour photographic process, it seems timely to address the ‘colour-blindness’ in many traditional histories of photography. Papers will consider a varied array of colour photographic projects, from early autochromists to the politics of colour in contemporary documentary practices to the revisiting of earlier colour processes in contemporary photography.
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SPRING TERM 2008

 

13th Annual Medieval Postgraduate Student Colloquium

Communication and Exchange in the Art and Architecture of the Middle Ages

Saturday, 2 February 2008
09.55 – 18.10, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre (with registration from 9.30am)

Speaker(s): Joanne Allen (University of Warwick), Emily Jane Anderson (University of Glasgow), Eleni Dimitriadou (Courtauld Institute of Art), Stefania Gerevini (Courtauld Institute of Art), Milena Grabacic (Exeter College, University of Oxford), Toby Huitson (University of Kent at Canterbury), Mayumi Ikeda (Courtauld Institute of Art), Emanuele Lugli (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University), Elizabeth Minas (Courtauld Institute of Art), Aude Morelle (Université Lille 3-Charles-de-Gaulle), Maria Paschali (Courtauld Institute of Art), Stuart Whatling (Courtauld Institute of Art)
Ticket/entry details: Open to all, free admission
Organised by: Dr Joanna Cannon and Laura Cleaver
Further information: The Annual Postgraduate Student Colloquium provides an opportunity for doctoral students to present their research in a professional and friendly setting. The Colloquium welcomes those who are presenting their work for the first time and more experienced speakers. This year twelve speakers will address the theme of Communication and Exchange in the Art and Architecture of the Middle Ages. Topics to be covered include exchanges between geographical areas and in particular places, communications between patrons and artists, and communication (in many forms) by viewers with works of art and architecture. We are pleased to welcome speakers from Britain, Europe and America. The organisers  would like to thank the Research Forum of the Courtauld Institute for their generous sponsorship of this event. For more information please contact Laura Cleaver (laura.cleaver@courtauld.ac.uk)

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Histories of Violence: Italy and the Mediterranean c 1300-1700

Saturday, 23 February 2008
10.00 – 17.00, Research Forum South Room (registration from 09.30)

Speaker(s): Samuel Bibby (UCL), Sara Gonzalez (Institute of Musical Research), Scott Nethersole (Courtauld Institute of Art), Thomas Nickson (Courtauld Institute of Art), Edward Payne (Courtauld Institute of Art), Per Rumberg (Courtauld Institute of Art) and Anthea Stevens (Courtauld Institute of Art)

Ticket/entry details: Open to all, free admission, but it is essential to book in advance due to limited availability and for security purposes; email ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk or call 020 7848 2785
Organised by: Scott Nethersole and Edward Payne
Further information: From the late Middle Ages through to the early modern period, the Mediterranean world was shattered by multiple acts of violence. These were primarily religious, political and artistic in nature. Yet as a concept, violence poses a challenge to modern historians, for its definition is hard to pin down: the term we employ loosely, though its physical expressions are numerous, its textual and visual forms provocative, its reception history problematic. Violence, rather, manifests itself as an attitude or process whose stakes change in space and over time. This symposium, whose scope spans across four centuries, addresses the manifold histories of violence in Italy and the Mediterranean during an artistically explosive and politically turbulent period of social and cultural development. It does so with the hope of arriving at a more nuanced ‘period’ understanding of violence and its various artistic or socio-political manifestations.

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SUMMER TERM 2008


Framing the Other: 30 Years After Orientalism



Left image: Odalisque with a Slave, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1839-1840 Oil on canvas, 72.07 x 100.33 cm (28 3/8 x 39 1/2 in.) Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop, 1943.25. Photo: Katya Kallsen © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Right image: Um Ahmed, 5 July 2006 Emilio Morenatti, AP Photo

Saturday, 26 April 2008

09.30 - 18.30, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre (with registration from 9.00am)

 

Speaker(s): Keynote speakers: Mary Roberts (University of Sydney) and Robert Fisk (The Independent)

Other speakers: Monia Abdallah (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)), Roger Blackley (Victoria University of Wellington), Ian Horton (London College of Communication), Peter Benson Miller (independent art historian and curator), Elizabeth Mjelde (De Anza College, Cupertino), Evgeny Steiner (Sainsbury Institute, SOAS), Julia Walker (University of Pennsylvania), Matthias Weiss (Freie Universität, Berlin)

Ticket/entry details: £15 (£10 concessions and Courtauld staff and students). Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Coordinator & Administrator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Orientalism conference'. For credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an email to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk.

Organised by: Aliya Abykayeva-Tiesenhausen and Melanie Vandenbrouck

Further information: As recent political developments have once again brought to the fore the question of East/West relationships, the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism comes as a suitable opportunity to re-examine the impact and currency of Said’s key arguments. This conference will focus on the influence of Said’s legacy to analyse visual culture as a crucial component of ‘Orientalism’s’ (and more generally imperialism’s) political self-justification, in the discursive construction of the ‘Other’. We will hear papers stemming from the nineteenth century, when imperialism was arguably produced by the development of racial thinking and the rise of European nationalism, to the turbulent present period. Addressing the vision of a ‘plural’ West, we wish to take up the issues raised by both obvious and surprising ‘Others’.

 

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View Programme [PDF]

 

 

Sculpture and Touch

 


10.00 – 18.00, Friday 16 May 2008 (with registration from 9.30am)
10.00 – 18.00, Saturday 17 May 2008 (with registration from 9.30am)

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre

 

Pilgrims’ handprint worn into the central sculpted column of the Pórtico de la Gloria

Pilgrims’ handprint worn into the central sculpted column of the Pórtico de la Gloria,
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Photo: © Peter Dent


Speaker(s): Shir Aloni (Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London); Francesca Bacci, (Centro Interdipartmentale Mente e Cervello, Università di Trento, Italy); Douglass Bailey (School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University); Sebastiano Barassi (Curator of Collections, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge); Andrew Benjamin (Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University, Australia); Fiona Candlin (Birkbeck College, University of London); Julia Cassim (Helen Hamlyn Centre, Royal College of Art); Anne Cranny-Francis (Department of Critical and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University, Australia); Rosalyn Driscoll (contemporary artist, USA); James Hall (independent art historian); Arie Hartog (Curator, Gerhard-Marks-Haus, Bremen, Germany); Claude Heath (contemporary artist, UK); Robert Hopkins (Department of Philosophy, University of Sheffield); Geraldine Johnson (History of Art Department, University of Oxford); Toby Juliff (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds); Hagi Kenaan (Department of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, Israel); Linda Ann Nolan (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome); Michael Paraskos (Director of Programmes, Cyprus College of Art); Michael Petry (contemporary artist, UK and Curator, Royal Academy Schools Gallery); Caterina Y. Pierre (Department of Art, City University of New York at Kingsborough Community College); Charles Spence (Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford); Carmen Windsor (Philosophy, University of Reading); Alison Wright (Department of History of Art, University College London)

Ticket/entry details: £35 (£15 students and Courtauld staff). Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator & Administrator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Sculpture & Touch conference’. For credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an e-mail to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk

Organised by: Peter Dent (British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow, Courtauld Institute of Art)

Further information: ‘Marble comes doubly alive for me then, as I ponder, comparing, / Seeing with vision that feels, feeling with fingers that see’. (Goethe, Roman Elegies)
Since the Renaissance, at least, the medium of sculpture has been linked explicitly to the sense of touch. Sculptors, philosophers and art historians have all related the two, often in strikingly different ways. In spite of this long running interest in touch and tactility, in recent decades vision and visuality have tended to dominate art historical research.
This symposium aims to introduce a new impetus to the discussion of the relationship between touch and sculpture by setting up a dialogue between art historians and individuals with fresh insights working in disciplines beyond art history. The programme reflects this ambition by bringing together an international and truly diverse set of speakers who will tackle subjects ranging from prehistoric figurines to the work of contemporary artists, from pre-modern ideas about the physiology of touch to tactile interaction in the museum environment, and from the phenomenology of touch in recent philosophy to the experimental findings of scientific study.

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The 26th Annual Gerry Hedley Student Symposium

Monday, 9 June 2008
09.30 - 18.00, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre (with registration from 9.00am)


Gerry Hedley
1949-1990
Speaker(s): Jane McCree, Rose Miller, Laura Mills, Emily Neider and Shelley Sims (Courtauld Institute of Art),  Andrea Kappes and Christine Slottved Reelsbo (Hamilton Kerr Institute), and Jennifer Bullock, Elizabeth Courtney, Bettina Ebert, Scott Fletcher and Natalie Richards (University of Northumbria)

Ticket/entry details: All tickets are £15. Booking is limited, so early booking is advisable. All delegates must be registered by June 2. Booking should be done through the symposium website, where the appropriate forms can be downloaded (www.geocities.com/gerryhedley). Cheques need to be made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ and sent along with the Booking Form found on the website to: "Gerry Hedley Student Symposium", Department of Conservation & Technology, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN.
Lunch is not included but the symposium will be followed by drinks and refreshments in the Student Café.

Organised by: Students of Conservation and Technology, Courtauld Institute of Art

Further information: The Gerry Hedley Student Symposium is an annual student-led conference providing students with an opportunity to share their work and research with all three UK institutions offering a postgraduate education in the conservation of paintings. It is named after Gerry Hedley, a Reader at the Courtauld Institute of Art, who taught generations of Conservation students and was a leader in research before his death in 1990.
Topics for this year’s symposium range from technical studies of artists’ materials and techniques, treatment reports, materials testing and investigations of various conservation practices past and present. The conference also provides an environment where students and professionals can share ideas and interact.
For more information and booking, please visit www.geocities.com/gerryhedley

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In despight of the devouring flame’: The Temple Church in London

 

Saturday 14 June 2008

09.45 – 18.15, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre (with registration from 9.15am)

 

Interior, The Temple Church Photo: © Chris Christodoulou

Interior, The Temple Church   Photo: © Chris Christodoulou


Speaker(s): The Rev’d Robin Griffith-Jones (Master of The Temple), Prof. Virginia Jansen (Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz), Philip Lankester (Royal Armouries, Leeds), Dr. Helen Nicholson (University of Cardiff), David Park (Courtauld Institute of Art), Prof. Rosemary Sweet (University of Leicester), Dr. William Whyte (St. John’s College, Oxford), Prof. Christopher Wilson (Emeritus, University College London)

Ticket/entry details: £15 (£10 concessions and Courtauld staff and students). Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Coordinator & Administrator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Temple Church conference'. For credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an email to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk.

Organised by: David Park (Courtauld Institute of Art) and The Rev’d Robin Griffith-Jones (Master of The Temple)

Further information: 700 years ago the Order of the Temple was in turmoil, its members under arrest, and its Grand Master soon to be burned at the stake. Its main church in England, at the New Temple in London, survived the suppression of the Order in 1312, and escaped (by a whisker) the Great Fire of London in 1666, only to be ravaged by fire during the Blitz in 1941. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most important surviving medieval monuments in London, with superb late Romanesque sculpture, luminous early Gothic architecture, a magnificent series of medieval monuments, and major post-Reformation furnishings by Sir Christopher Wren and others. Although the subject of much antiquarian study in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, its significance in terms of artistic, liturgical and conservation developments has never been the subject of comprehensive scholarly study. The present conference aims to address this gap. Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the grant of the Temple’s Charter by James I, the conference is held in association with an exhibition at the Temple Church from 31 March to 15 June (for which see www.templechurch.com for details).

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Creative Writing and Art History: From the Fictional to the Biographical

Saturday, 21 June 2008

10.00 – 18.15, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre (registration from 09.30)

Speaker(s): Elizabeth Eger (King's College, London), Tom Gretton (University College London), Carol Mavor (University of Manchester), Jeremy Melius (University of California, Berkeley), Gavin Parkinson (Courtauld Institute of Art), Stephanie Porras (Courtauld Institute of Art), Adrian Rifkin (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ticket/entry details: Open to all, places are free but should be booked in advance for catering purposes. Please make a booking by emailing ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk by Wednesday 18 June 2008

Organised by: Professor Patricia Rubin and Dr Catherine Grant

Further information: This one-day symposium considers the variety of ways in which the writing of art history intersects with creative writing, including novels, biographies and experimental approaches to the subject of both art and the artist. Held as part of the Writing Art History seminar (click here for more information), this symposium intends to foster discussion about the different ways in which art history and creative writing have been combined, with papers expected from a wide range of periods, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The morning session will focus on the relationship of creative writing to art history, with Adrian Rifkin considering what it is that creative writing might do for art history, whilst Carol Mavor uses the fairytale as a way of weaving together stories about boyhood and art, circling around the letter ‘O’. The afternoon focuses on biography in relation to art history, with papers considering the fictions that are created by artists and historians in the construction of biographies, and the impact of the biographical on art histories. The papers will include Elisabeth Eger’s investigation into the creative uses of both portraiture and biography by eighteenth-century intellectual women, following on from her recent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery: Brilliant Women: 18th-century Bluestockings. The symposium will conclude with a round-table, inviting the audience to contribute to the discussions developed over the course of the day.

Please see Writing Art History for more details on the Research Forum’s series.

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Writing Modern Art History: Papers in Honour of Christopher Green


Thursday 3 July 2008, 17.30 – 19.15 (with registration from 17.00)

Friday 4 July 2008, 09.30 – 16.00 (with registration from 09.00)

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre


John Milner after Juan Gris, The Painter’s Window (1925), 1993.

Speaker(s): include Dawn Ades (University of Essex), Grace Brockington (University of Bristol), David Cottington (Kingston University), Romy Golan (City University of New York), Christopher Green (Courtauld Insitute of Art), David Lomas (University of Manchester), C F B Miller (Courtauld Institute of Art), Jennifer Mundy (Tate), Gavin Parkinson (Courtauld Institute of Art)

Ticket/entry details: All tickets are £15. Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator & Administrator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Writing Modern Art History/ Christopher Green conference’. For credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an e-mail to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk

Organised by: Dr C F B Miller

Further information: This conference presents a cross-section of contemporary practice in the art history of European modernism. Leading scholars from Britain and the US will articulate their current research, address issues of methodology and pedagogy, and question the relation between the academy and the museum. All the speakers share a common formation at the Courtauld Institute of Art, the majority having been, at different times, doctoral students of Professor Christopher Green. It is to mark the occasion of Professor Green’s retirement that the Courtauld convenes this event; in their variety the papers represent the wide-ranging legacy of a generous teacher and internationally eminent authority on modern art. Topics include: surrealism and shamanism; art and internationalism; modernity and the avant-garde; Picasso and prehistory; modernism and the mural; and cubism and physics. A round-table of distinguished academic curators will also discuss the theme, ‘Decent Exposure? Making an Exhibition of Modern Art History’.

View programme [PDF]

View abstracts [PDF]