Association of Art Historians (AAH) Annual Conference, University of
Edinburgh, 7-9 April 2016
Deadline: Nov 9, 2015
Artist Networks and Networking in and with Europe, 700–1700
Convenors:
Jill Harrison, The Open University, [log in to unmask]
Joanne Anderson, Birkbeck, University of London,
[log in to unmask]
In medieval and Renaissance times, artists gained work through
networks: social, religious, political and economic. Their success or
failure was predicated on the rise of Europe as a trading force from
700, facilitating mobility, collaboration and entrepreneurship
(McCormack, 2001; Abu-Lughod, 1989). In recent years, identifying and
interpreting networks of art has become the focus of interdisciplinary
studies. McClean, in the Art of the Network (2007) explores the
‘strategic interaction’ evident in letters between artists and merchant
patrons in Florence, while Dewilde’s 2012 study On noble artists and
poor craftsmen: Networking painters in Renaissance Bruges critiques the
dynamic commercial and intellectual relationships between 15th-century
artist families, guilds and humanist scholars. They speak to a larger
human ecology that thrived in village, town and city, in and beyond
Europe. New directions might include artists travelling to set up new
networks, how networks form around specific professions or political
parties and informal family and workshop ties.
To what extent artists actively constructed and manipulated such
networks requires further examination. Were they motivated by money,
market forces, personal or professional fame or familial concerns? What
problems did they encounter and how did they overcome them? Their
agency in these contexts poses methodological and theoretical
challenges that will form the basis of roundtable discussion.
This panel welcomes papers which take an interdisciplinary approach to
interrogate the nature of artist networks and networking in and with
Europe between 700 and 1700. It seeks to open up debate and offer fresh
perspectives on a topic of relevance to all periods of art history.
Please download the proposal form at:
http://www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/sessions2016/session6
The template should be used to submit your abstract of 250 words max
along with a short CV to the convenors by November 9, 2015.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|