Art History as Modernism (Denver, 3-6 Oct 13)

GSA Conference 2013, Denver, CO Deadline: Feb 11, 2013

Kathleen Chapman

Art History as Modernism: Intersections between Modern Art and Theory in Fin-de-Siècle Germany and Austria GSA Conference 2013, Denver, CO Denver, 3-6 Oct 13

Deadline: February 11th 2013

While the work of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German and Austrian art historians helped to set the course of the development of art history as a discipline, the impact of this body of thought did not remain confined within its disciplinary boundaries. It extended beyond the scholarly realm to reach artists, critics, and the reading public at large. Indeed, this work was shaped by contemporaneous developments in art, experimental psychology, and other fields. This session is concerned with the circulation of art historical theories and the role that the intersections between art history, art theory, and art-making played in the development and reception of modernism in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German-speaking contexts. We welcome papers that explore the many ways in which several key art historical problems—for example, conceptions of ornament, abstraction, the psychology of styles, artistic volition (Kunstwollen), psychological aesthetics, and the interface between fine and applied arts—shaped both art historical scholarship and modernist art practices from Jugendstil through International Constructivism. In what ways, for example, did art historical understandings of ornament shape the development of modernist art in Germany? How did the various forms of modernism inflect art historical theories of the fine and decorative arts? How does psychological aesthetics, as formulated by, for example, Robert Vischer or Theodor Lipps, shape the intersections between art historical theories and modernist practice? What effects might a specific modernist artist’s embrace of a particular art historian’s work—for example, Franz Marc’s adoption of Wilhelm Worringer’s concept of abstraction—have had on that artist’s creative output and on art historical theory? How did Alois Riegl’s theory of Kunstwollen shape public understandings of style and culture? And in what ways do questions of German and/or Austrian nationality and nationalism inflect these discussions? While we invite proposals for papers that provide empirical evidence of the importance of a partic- ular art historical concept for an artist’s creative process and vice versa, we are primarily interest- ed in examinations of the discursive and material links between art historical theory and artistic practice.

Please send a 250-word abstract and brief c.v. by February 11 to both:

1/2 ArtHist.net

Priyanka Basu Visiting Assistant Professor, Art Department, St. Norbert College [email protected]

Kathleen Chapman Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Virginia Commonwealth University [email protected]

Reference: CFP: Art History as Modernism (Denver, 3-6 Oct 13). In: ArtHist.net, Feb 6, 2013 (accessed Sep 24, 2021), .

2/2