by Jon Lackman | 28 February 2009 | Conferences, Medieval, Modern, Renaissance
Allyson Drucker reports from CAA:
You would have been hard-pressed to find the geographic and temporal boundaries that academics have traditionally abided by in two of this morning’s sessions where, instead, panelists focused on the points of intersection among art and artists hailing from different milieux. At “The International Contribution to Renaissance and Baroque Art” session, the Italian peninsula of the 15th – 17th centuries was shown to be an exciting arena of cultural exchange. The understanding of Italian hegemony during the period has been undergoing revision in recent years and the speakers at today’s panel furthered a more nuanced view of the reciprocal ways in which foreign-born artists such as Alonso Berruguete participated in the artistic community while in Italy. At the “Altars, Relics and Ascetics: The Invention of Religion in Contemporary Art” session, panelists showed that religious themes have a place in contemporary art and art criticism. One of the highlights of the session was Alexander Nagel’s talk which compared the work of Robert Smithson with medieval chapels. The masterful comparison between the art and art theory of vastly different spheres of consciousness generated a lot of buzz that spilled into the Convention Center’s hallways once the morning session came to a close.
Thank you so much for sharing. My research focus in art history was border theory. It is good to see border (boundary) being applied allowing us to move away from linear histories.