Association of Art Historians 40th Anniversary Conference & Bookfair
Royal College of Art (London) 10 – 12 April 2014
Student Session Call for Papers:
Nostalgia: Representations and Reconstructions of the Past
Session Convenors:
Anna Beketov, University of Leeds
Nicola McCartney, Birkbeck, University of London
Imogen Wiltshire, University of Birmingham
2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the AAH and the 175th anniversary of the RCA. In light of this focus on commemoration and duration, this year’s Student Session seeks to interrogate the ways in which concepts of time, temporality and nostalgia permeate artworks, their production and the writings of art history. To what extent is there an inherent sentimentality to the way in which we view and interact with works of the past and how has this shaped the production, reception, collection and display of artworks?
Artworks enact and subvert historical narratives and events, while periodization and chronology are inextricable components of the discipline of art history. This session considers how art historians and practitioners construct the past from the perspective of the present and explores the relativity of perception. Traditions and legacies are created through celebration and appropriation over time, but why are some art historians deemed sacred or artworks untouchable yet others are referenced and critiqued again and again?
We invite presentations from student artists and historians
exploring historiography or specific case studies.
Topics might
include but are not limited to:
- The role of nostalgia in its differing forms (e.g. geo-political,
Romantic, personal) in representations of the past, events or
projected futures
– Strategies adopted by artists and historians to archive, record,
represent or distort time
– Anachronism in art practice and theory
– Relationships between the ephemeral artwork and its
conservation
– Pervading legacies and traditions revived across art periods
– Critiques of Michael Baxendall’s ‘period eye’ or retrospective
accounts
– Appropriations of art and theory
– The nature and role of art history in the future
To submit a paper proposal, follow the guidelines and download a form from: www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/2014-conference
Proposals should be emailed directly to the conveners via AAH40SS@gmail.com by 11 November 2013.
Golovine 