by Jon Lackman | 13 December 2010 | Conferences
It looks like a good one. The sessions on “Policing the Sacred: Art, Censorship, and the Politics of Faith” and “Gender and Sexuality in the Art Museum” will certainly have plenty to talk about. The latter features “Hide/Seek” co-curator Jonathan Katz.
“The Crisis in Art History” should be interesting. It features Stephen Murray, Virginia Rutledge, Patricia Rubin, David Joselit, Maxwell Anderson, and Elizabeth Easton and promises to cover much terrain:
There is a widespread sense that the current situation in art history reveals a discipline in crisis. There are many different interpretations of the causes of this crisis—and just as many possible solutions. In this session, a number of art historians working in different areas will make brief presentations on how the field of art history looks to them. Issues will include, among others, the appearance or disappearance of various subfields of art history; the predominance of contemporary art in graduate schools; the constriction of the job market; and the influence of intellectual property laws on publishing.
Star-studded artist session “Parallel Practices: When the Mind Isn’t Focused on Art” includes Janine Antoni, Vija Celmins, Petah Coyne, Robert Gober, and Philip Taaffe.
I’m also looking forward to “The Art of Pranks.” Will it itself include any pranks, sanctioned or unsanctioned? Is there such a thing as a sanctioned prank?
A few assorted paper topics that caught my eye:
Regeneration: Tissue Engineering, Maintenance, and Gendered Infrastructures
Screwing the Other: Emily Jacir’s “Sexy Semite”
The Cuddle Commandos: Parody and Meta Semiotic Resistance
Altesundneueszusammengehen (spoliation)
Thought: part of the art history crisis might be the gap between “what art galleries do” and “what art historians at colleges are interested in”. Does that seem to exist?
“The Crisis in Art History” does seen interesting. It seems like Art History has been in a state of crisis for about thirty years.
The whole “making it well-nigh impossible for any potential Bright Young People to do anything in art history” thing can’t help. Although I could be wrong about that.
I imagine the speakers will be talking about how students of modern and contemporary art are far outnumbering those for other disciplines, including the former strongholds of Renaissance, Baroque, and nineteenth-century art.