Call for Papers: “Beyond Connoisseurship: Rethinking Prints from the Belle Épreuve (1875) to the Present”
The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY
Organized by: Allison Rudnick and Britany Salsbury
November 7, 2014, 12pm-6pm
Modernism brought about radical transformations in print culture. Once relegated primarily to the field of image reproduction, the graphic arts were taken up by large numbers of artists who experimented with diverse forms of printmaking: from the deluxe belles épreuves of the etching revival to Jules Chéret’s mass-produced posters, Andy Warhol’s silkscreened canvases to Tracey Emin’s monoprints. Despite the prevalence of printmaking as a constant in artists’ practices, however, it is still often perceived as secondary to painting and sculpture and interpreted using traditional, connoisseurial approaches. As a result, prints seem fated to be seen as parallel to, rather than integrated within, the scholarship of modern and contemporary art.
This conference, which will coincide with the 2014 IFPDA Print Fair, seeks to present alternatives by highlighting the work of scholars who are engaging innovative methodologies to address printmaking (from ca. 1875 to the present) and connect it to broader theoretical trends within art history. Confirmed speakers include Jay A. Clarke (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute) and Ruth E. Iskin (Ben-Gurion University).
Advanced graduate students, academics, and curators are invited to submit papers; an interdisciplinary focus is especially encouraged.
Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:
– Continuities and discontinuities in printmaking from the nineteenth century to today;
– Exhibitions, collecting practices, and reception history;
– Questions of multiples, editions and distribution;
– The impact of new technologies (e.g., scanners, three dimensional prints) and artistic experimentation with nontraditional print media;
– The use of feminist theory, media theory, queer theory, social art history, thing theory/speculative realism and other interdisciplinary methodologies as applied to the study of prints;
– The role of prints in artistic thinking; their relationship to other works of art (e.g. sculpture, drawing, painting, installations, archives, performance, jewelry and textiles, etc.)
Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words along with a CV or brief biographical statement by August 1, 2014. Please direct all submissions and inquiries to printconference2014@gmail.com.
