Regionalism: Challenging the Canon Despatched by Surface Rather Than Air Mail
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May 1990 37 BULLETIN ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS Editor: Clare Pumfrey, 40 Sillwood Road, Brighton BN1 2LE Tel: 0273 29433 Advertising Manager: Pamela Courtney, Albert House, Monnington-on-Wye, Hereford HR4 7NL Tel: 09817 344 From the editor NEWS REPORT Problems with airmailing the Bulletin I must apologise to all overseas Dublin Conference Report members who received their copy of Bulletin 35 extremely late. This was due to the fact that the copies were Regionalism: Challenging the Canon despatched by surface rather than air mail. This error occurred because I was advised by the Post Office that The Association's sixteenth annual Reformation in the Regions: Image and when a large number of items to be conference was the first AAH conference Discord (Helga Robinson-Hammerstein) posted are collected by the Post Office, held outside the United Kingdom, hosted Word and Image (David Scott) and the postagehas been prepaid, the by the Department of the History of Art, Establishing the Canon: The Post Office will stick an airmail label Trinity College, Dublin. The conference Institutionalisation of Art (Peter on each one. This was completely false was organised by Fintan Cullen and took Funnell) information, and so all the overseas place from 23-26 March. In total, 490 Italian Painting: Centre and Periphery, copies went by surface mail even people attended. There were 357 full 1200-1300 (Julian Gardner) though I had paid the airmail postage. conference delegates and 88 partial The search for Vernacular Expression At the moment, I am in the process conference attendees. This total includes in Design: late 19th and early 20th of negotiating a reimbursement of the 45 Student Conference Assistants who had centuries (Nicola Gordon Bowe) excess postage that was paid. The full access to the conference. Creating a History of North American problem should not arise again as every There was a wide interest in the Art (Ronald B. Bernier) overseas copy is now labelled with an conference and its proceedings among the Northern/Ireland: where does the airmail sticker. Irish press and media. Coverage was given border lie? (Belinda Loftus) on two TV programmes by RTE, the Irish Regional Workshops in Gothic TV network; mention was also made in the Architecture and Sculpture (Roger national newspapers and in the London Stalley) CONTENTS Independent. The Art Market and Regionalism The conference was opened by Professor (Martyn Anglesea) News Report 1 Aidan Clark, Assistant-Provost, University Italian Art: Centre versus Province, post of Dublin, Trinity College, followed by 1300 (Catherine Whistler) Declan McGonagle, Gallery Organiser, Popular Imagery and Critical Conference News 4 Orchard Gallery, Derry, who delivered an Regionalism (Luke Gibbons) opening address on the theme of the Modernism and the City: Joyce's Dublin Obituary 12 conference. and Beyond (Brian Kennedy) The seventeen academic sessions took Minorities and Regions (Joan Fowler) Publishing Points 13 place over Friday afternoon, all day Painting in Spain (Peter Cherry) Saturday and Sunday afternoon. 125 papers Open Session (Slavka Sverakova) were read including a viewing of the video Regional Architecture in Britain, Ireland Announcements 14 Mother Ireland. The academic sessions and Continental Europe 1700-1850 with their conveners were as follows: (Alistair Rowan) 1 NEWS REPORT Delegates 9 Insular Art (Jonathan J G Alexander) On Monday 26 March many of the Here are a few reactions to some of the delegates opted to go on various trips and conference sessions. The conference was brought to a close on visits. We would like to thank the following Sunday 25 March by Professor Jonathan J for their help: Painting in Spain was one of the most G Alexander of the Institute of Fine Arts, exciting and provocative academic sessions New York University, who delivered a Professor Roger Stalley for leading a bus of the Dublin conference. Numbers were paper: Regionalism: Challenging the trip to the Boyne Valley; Dr Terry Barry so great on the first day that the session had Canon. The Middle Ages. The respondents for leading a trip to Kilkenny and Cashel; to be moved to a larger lecture theatre. were Professor Marcia Pointon (University Professor Alistair Rowan for leading a Success depended entirely on the of Sussex) and Luke Gibbons (Dublin City trip to various houses and institutions in enthusiasm and energy of our speakers, University). Kildare and Meath; Dr Edward discussing issues dear to their scholarly An art history Book Fair organised by McParland for leading a walking tour of hearts. Robert Towers took place in the Samuel Dublin; Professor John Turpin for The fact that Hispanic art is a4 peripheral' Beckett Rooms, Trinity College on Friday showing delegates around the National area of study meant that the session was 23 and Saturday 24 March. This was well College of Art and Design; Yosiko spared time-consuming art historical attended by delegates and the general Ushioda for allowing delegates access to rhetoric. Dublin provided an ideal public. There were 29 exhibition stands the Far Eastern and Islamic material in opportunity for the small group of one of which was a large collective stand. The Chester Beatty Library and Gallery pioneering Hispanists to meet. We were The special interest sessions were held of Oriental Art. honoured by the presence of Enriqueta on Sunday morning and resulted in the Harris, the most eminent British scholar in rejuvenation of the Student Sub-Committee. The conference organiser would also like the field, whose paper on Velazquez was a These meetings were followed by the AGM. to thank the following for their help in highlight of the conference. Three receptions were held to entertain making the conference such a success: All of the speakers, their families and delegates to the conference. The organisers Professor Martin Kemp, Chair and the friends wish to warmly thank Sean and would like to thank the following: members of the Executive Committee over Rosemarie Mulcahy for their gracious An Taoiseach, Mr Charles J Haughey the past two years, especially Professor hospitality. T.D. and Mrs Haughey for hosting a Marcia Pointon and Dr Nigel Llewellyn; State Reception in Dublin Castle on the the Student Conference Assistants, Peter Cherry evening of 24 March. This was attended especially Conor McCarthy; The British Convener by about 390 delegates. Council; Faksimile Verlag Luzern; the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ann Reihill, Managing Editor of The especially Bill Bolger; Gwen Woods, who Before attending the session, Italian Art: Irish Arts Review for hosting a reception was in charge of bookings; Catherine centre versus province, post 1300, in the National Gallery of Ireland on the Marshall who dealt with accommodation delegates may reasonably have felt evening of Friday 23 March; Raymond and Felicity Woolf, in charge of finance. uncertain as to the strength of the word Keaveney, Director and William Finlay, For those interested, some of the papers 'versus' in the title, and dubious about the Chairman of the Governors and given at the conference are scheduled to polarity - or was it just a sense of Guardians of the National Gallery of appear in the 1990 and 1991 volumes of The competitiveness - that our convener Ireland. This reception was attended by Irish Arts Review and in forthcoming issues Catherine Whistler wished perhaps to imply about 450 delegates. of Circa. by it. But this group of papers, of almost universally high quality, effectively Christie's for sponsoring a reception on Fintan Cullen explored and demonstrated the responses the evening of 25 March; The Bank of 1990 Conference Organiser of artists in smaller, 'provincial' towns to Ireland for their generous offer of the their dominating metropolitan neighbours. House of Lords, the Bank of Ireland. By the end of the session, therefore, we had This reception was attended by about gained a generalised sense of the parallel 250 delegates. concerns of artists and patrons in Verona (with respect to Venice), for example, or in Circa art magazine for hosting a Avignon, Arezzo and Naples (with respect lunchtime drink in conjunction with the to Rome). We were, moreover, made more Book Fair on Saturday 25 March. aware of the imaginative receptivity, and, frequently, the positive independent strength, of artistic activity in towns like 2 NEWS REPORT reactions Ferrara, Messina, Bologna, Brescia or active engagement with cultural practices, 'Regionalism' was also relevant to my Pesaro - towns which are too often regarded one that evidences 'lives lived, time spent' own research interests. Thus, I benefited as mere peripheral satellites of more in a socially meaningful way. from the stimulating opportunity of innovative centres of production. Focusing While the session proved very fruitful listening to a wide variety of cases discussion on a general theme which was at from a personal point of view, documenting the expression and first sight unpromising, proved ultimately demonstrating a solid critique of given construction of national identity and to be both salutary and persuasive. 'isms', I did wonder whether the silences, distinctiveness by means of national artistic including my own, at the end of these styles and visual images crystallising the Frances Ames-Lewis thought-provoking papers had to do with a traits of the national self in opposition to a Birkbeck College perhaps too easy acceptance of their dominant centre. I found David Scott's implications. paper on the Semiotics of the Irish