by Jon Lackman | 16 February 2010 | Conferences, Modern
Artinfo is running advertisements for what must be the most hyped art-history conference in recent years — “Russia and the Global Cézanne Effect, 1900-1950.? Sponsored by Gazprom, the government-controlled petroleum producer, the conference will be held in Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg. (There are other sponsors listed as well, including The Art Newspaper and Art + Auction, an affiliate of Artinfo.) Speakers include Denis Coutagne, Albert Kostenevich, André Dombrowski, John Milner, Shigemi Inaga, James Oles, Partha Mitter, Rachael DeLue, Anna Gruetzner-Robins, Friederike Kitschen, Joseph Rishel, Bruno Ely, Isabelle Cahn, Jayne Warman, Michel Fraisset, and Aurelia Bourquard. The conference’s website comes complete with links to its Twitter and Facebook pages, a countdown clock and an amusing musical animation implying that this conference will not be of international but intergalactic importance. The site’s text expresses some confusion over expected attendance (“We expect that over 400 people … The number of participants will be over 300″) and promises that tickets would be available starting Feb. 15 (no sign of that option yet), which leaves one cautiously optimistic that the conference will in fact be webcast in translation as promised. The conference is clearly intended to be (at least in part) a proof of Russian modernity, of technological prowess, up-to-date intellectual climate, and cosmopolitan outlook: “The international coverage, the geographic breadth of the invited audience and the technologically advanced facilities will make this event the first of such quality and reach in the new history of Russia and in the study of global modernism at large.”
