Art as Commodities / Commodities as Art

An interdisciplinary conference organised by White Rose College to take place on 14 June 2019 at the University of York

Call for papers

Cultural entities typical of the culture industry are no longer also commodities, they are commodities through and through. Theodor Adorno, ‘Culture Industry Reconsidered’ (1967).

When art makes the headlines, it is usually about money. In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold for over $450 million at Christie’s New York. Just how can a painting be worth more than a penthouse on Fifth Avenue?

A propensity for truck, barter and exchange is one of visual art’s defining characteristics. This conference will explore the conceptual interrelationships between art and commodities, encompassing a range of media from paintings to artefacts.

Are artworks ‘commodities through and through’, or are they economically exceptional? The brand equity of a Picasso or Fabergé, compounded with their provenance or “social life”, suggest so. As desirable objects, artworks are often meta-desirable. The Paston Treasure is a mirror of luxury that was itself luxurious to own. Mundane objects, meanwhile, have a history of aesthetic transfiguration, especially materials of the craft. Did artists possess a kind of Midas touch?

This conference will demonstrate the centrality of markets to art’s modern cultural ascendancy, while also recasting art objects as bodies of knowledge and vehicles of cultural exchange through networks of global trade.

Papers are invited from across historical periods and geographic regions, focusing on the period 1450-1900. In particular, we wish to cover the following topics:

·         The art and antiques market

·         Collecting, provenance and the “social life of things”

·         The materials of art

·         The value of artistic labour

·         Art and global trade/empire

·         Artistic representations of commodities, e.g. still life

·         The art of the Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands).

The conference is a unique opportunity to share one’s research in an under-explored field, and meet other like-minded scholars. Our keynote, Dr Leah Clark from the Open University, will be hosted by York’s Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies.

Generously funded by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH/AHRC), we are able to fund travel (£75 for UK speakers) as well as overnight accommodation. Lunch and refreshments will be provided, together with dinner in town.

Co-organised by Adam Sammut (University of York), Simon Spier (University of Leeds) and Apurba Chatterjee (University of Sheffield).

Please send a short speaker profile and an abstract of 300 words maximum to [log in to unmask] by 29 March. For further enquiries, please contact Adam Sammut, PhD candidate at the University of York, at [log in to unmask] with “Art as commodities” in the subject header.