Cfp: "French Theory: Reception in the Visual Arts in the United States Between 1965 and 1995," University of Louvain, May, 2011.

Summary:

There are many American artists, active in the second half of the twentieth century, whose practice and theory have been infuenced by philosophy, literary studies and social sciences. In this regard, several French scholars have benefited from early sustained interest. Among these are major figures such as Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, Bourdieu, Foucault, Lacan, Althusser, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Derrida or Deleuze. Many thinkers whose writings have come to constitute the corpus of the so-called French Theory. This symposium intends to study the reception of this French thought in the field of the American visual arts from 1965 until 1995.

Call for Papers:

There are many American artists, active in the second half of the twentieth century, whose practice and theory have been infuenced by philosophy, literary studies and social sciences. In this regard, several French scholars have benefited from early sustained interest. Among these are major figures such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida or Gilles Deleuze. Many thinkers whose writings have come to constitute the corpus of the so-called French Theory. The influence of this French thought in the American universities, from the mid-1970s on, notably contributing to the emergence of the Cultural studies, has been the subject of several studies, including the important and recent work by Francois Cusset. However, the reception of such a thinking in the specific field of the visual arts has not yet been the subject of systematic research, with the exception of a few and relatively dispersed studies. Among the laters are some essays by Sylvère Lotringer considering artistic practice posterior to the mid-1970s, and by Sande Cohen. Still, it turns out that some artists could gradually have access to various pieces of this corpus as soon as the second half of the 1960s, thanks to first translations, conferences, travels or the presence itself of one or the other author on the territory. Thus, this symposium intends to study the reception of this French thought in the field of the visual arts from 1965 until 1995. A year that marks the eve of a movement of critical evaluation of the influence of these authors on the American intellectual field initiated by the now famous “Sokal affair”, among other events. To understand this episode, three issues or topics can be brought to the fore.

The first one concerns the ways and means by which the dissemination of the ideas of these French authors occurred. How and by the mean of which historical events did the artists happened to get in touch with their writings ? Is it possible to define different and subsequent phases of dissemination of authors in the United-States (such as : Lévi-Strauss, Barthes ; then Foucault, Lacan, Bourdieu and Lyotard ; and finally Baudrillard, Deleuze and Derrida ; phases to be revised during the symposium)? Did some English artists and reviews play a role in the relaying and spreading of these ideas?

A second issue deals with the reception of the French thought among artists. For instance, is it possible to figure out the understanding the first artists could possess of structuralism and post-structuralism in the second half of 1960s ? Is it possible to define the chronological moment of a real reception ? Besides, what is also at stake are the different cultural, intellectual and even political conditions that might have provided a convenient environment or cradle for the rise of this French thought in the United-States. Or, to the contrary, what were the conditions that might have impede its reception and absorption. It will also be of interest to study which texts, which concepts and which theories, the American artists decided to retain and to use, and therefore to study the changes this thought underwent owing to these uses.

Finally, a third issue will focus on the application or use made by the artists of the lessons gained from these French authors. Through a series of case studies, covering the period of the three decades, we expect to uncover the benefits and changes experienced by visual practices thanks to the French Theory. What’s more, from a more historiographic point of view, what needs to be reassessed is the relevance of the critical use critics and art historians themselves might have made of this same thought when studying these very artistic practices.

Keynote speakers already confirmed are:

Victor Burgin (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
François Cusset (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre)
Sylvère Lotringer (University of Columbia, New York)
Laura Mulvey (Birbeck University, London)
Peter Osborne (Middelsex University)
Jean Michel Rabaté (Pennsylvania University)
John Rajchman (University of Columbia, New York)

Proposals for papers in French or English, with a short résumé, will be accepted at frenchtheory_at_uclouvain.be. Proposals are limited to 400 words. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2010.

Gibson, Eric. "Why Dictators Love Kitsch." WALL STREET JOURNAL August 8, 2009.

'Kitsch' has become a byword in the culture for anything over-the-top or tacky. In art, it’s meaning is more specific. It refers to works trafficking in facile, base or false emotions—most often sentimentality—and whose imagery is off-the-shelf and formulaic, a debased version of a once-original aesthetic idea. Need to conjure that warm-and-fuzzy feeling? Cue the fiery sunset. Looking to express fragile innocence? Bring on the shoeless urchin carrying the bird with the broken wing. Totalitarian kitsch puts those ideas in the service of the state. It is the official art of authoritarian governments, aimed at extending state control through propaganda. Totalitarian kitsch exists to glorify the state, foster a personality cult surrounding the dictator and celebrate ceaseless and irrevocable social and economic progress through images of churning factories and happy, exultant workers. It does so using the corrupted language of academic realism—heavily muscled supermen and women and colossal scale. Pyongyang’s “Monument to Party Foundation” consists of three hands each emerging from a circular platform and holding, respectively, a hammer, a hoe and a brush. The hands alone are over 150 feet tall. Such art isn’t produced by the proverbial starving artist in a garret but on an assembly line, like Mansudea Studio in Pyongyang. . . . Read the rest here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574336383324209824.html.

Donougho, Martin. Review of Alexander Nehamas' ONLY A PROMISE OF HAPPINESS. NDPR (January 2009).

Nehamas, Alexander. Only a Promise of Happiness: the Place of Beauty in a World of Art. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2007. In his new book Alexander Nehamas wishes to rehabilitate talk of beauty as a characteristic of art, in the face, first, of philosophical or modernist attempts to insulate art from ordinary concerns, and second, of resort to aesthetic judgment rather than passionate engagement with art, to a 'juridical' as opposed to a 'Platonic' approach. He contends (35) that beauty "is part of the everyday world of purpose and desire, history and contingency, subjectivity and incompleteness." His case for passion is made with passion. . . . Read the rest here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=14966.

Cfp: "Music and Modernism," Courtauld Institute of Art, May 16, 2009.

Exploring Kandinsky's contention that the "various arts are drawing together, finding in music the best teacher," Music and Modernism will re-evaluate the significant connections between the disciplines of music and fine art in the period covering the emergence and flowering of Modernism, c. 1849-1950. During this time both music and fine art were concerned with issues of equality, equivalence, relativity and subjectivity themes that have since been taken as key to the definition of Modernism. Composers and artists repeatedly borrowed from one another, yet their motives have seldom been explored. Did such quotation amount to a conscious statement of their modernity, or was this merely a symptom of shared interests? This study day will question not only what it was music gave to fine art, or fine art music, but will ask whether we can in fact think in terms of two opposing directions of influence in this period at all. Contemporary criticism adopted an overtly musical language for modernism that had been defined in the philosophy of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Bergson. This was however a reflexive process in which the use of a shared terminology in turn expanded the range of musical vocabulary. Filtered into popular texts, the precision which distinguished analogous intent from synonymous intent rapidly vanished, leaving scholars with an ill-defined discourse that is too readily accepted. Critically appraising the outcome of this richly suggestive inter-textuality, Music and Modernism will question the value, relevance, and usage of this terminology. The linguistic convergence of art and music in this period was itself couched in the broader developments of psychology. Noting our innate "susceptibility" to music, William James was one amongst many to instigate and chart a shift in emphasis from description to emotional directness. Re-thinking the reception of artworks in terms of the representational or the abstract, philosophers, psychologists, and critics gave voice to an aesthetic appreciation that was increasingly questioning of its cultural situation. This cross-culturalism encouraged a shift from the traditional division of the arts that had held sway since Lessing's Laokoon (1766) to embrace a melding of media and reference in the act or event of creation. Keynote Speaker: Peter Vergo (University of Essex), "Music and the Visual Arts: Some Unanswered Questions" Twenty minute papers are invited from scholars, artists, and musicians. Topics may include, but are not restricted to: - Questions of language - Representation: writing, notation, visualisation of music, music publishing - Creativity - Disciplinarity - Collaborative projects - Synaesthesia - Reception: association, subjectivity, polemic - Performance: issues of staging, artwork as event - The Gesamtkunstwerk Send proposals (max 300 words) to Charlotte.Demille@courtauld.ac.uk by January 31, 2009.

Demand, Christian. "Inflated Phrases." SIGN AND SIGHT May 28, 2005.

Most texts which accompany contemporary art production are so alarmingly twisted and woolly that they could easily pass for self-parody. Clucking hysterically they describe works "which hover on the border between the visible and the invisible", which - in the most wonderful way - "function as a link between geology and biology", which - how could it be anything else - "tackle aesthetic-political questions on cultural difference and the migration of form", which - it goes without saying - "reference the key artistic avant-guards of the 20th and 21st centuries", while naturally "incorporating the key questions of architecture, design, philosophy and science" and representing, in their spirituality, "a realisation of the present". . . . Read the rest here: http://www.signandsight.com/features/1703.html.

CFP: "Aesthetics and Modernity from Schiller to Marcuse," Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London, September 10-11, 2009.

From Schiller to Marcuse the aesthetic dimension has been conceived among other things as a kind of moral forum, a critical mirror for society, an outlet for otherwise impermissible drives, and as a dimension in which a more affirmative mode of existence is possible. It has been seen as characteristic of modernity’s orientation around the individual and as a means of counteracting the rationalisations of modern life. This two day-conference will investigate the many and conflicting relationships between aesthetics and modernity. In particular, the 250th anniversary of Schiller’s birth in 1759 seems a timely point to reflect on the German tradition of socio-cultural and aesthetic theory and artistic practice from the late Enlightenment to the Frankfurt School and beyond, in which Schiller played such a seminal role. Papers are therefore invited on any and all aspects of the relationship between aesthetics and modernity from the 1790s to the 1970s, and in particular, contributions that develop an interdisciplinary perspective – embracing German studies, philosophy, social and cultural theory, aesthetics, literature, music, art. Papers should last no more than 30 minutes; the conference languages will be English and German. Please send proposals (including an abstract of 200 words max.) by 31 August 2008 to: Dr Jerome Carroll and Dr Maike Orgel. We shall also be publishing an edited collection of papers from the symposium. Visit the conference webpage here: http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/events/conference/conf_SchillertoMarcuseCFP.htm.

"Aesthetics and Contemporary Art," Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, March 13-14, 2008.

The Drawing Room, Trent Park Campus, Middlesex University, London N14.

PROGRAMME

Day 1 9.30-10.30 Registration and Coffee 10.30-10.45 Introduction: Peter Osborne, CRMEP 10.45-12.30 Sensate Thinking: Aesthetics, Art, Ontology

• Christoph Menke, SfB/Institute for Philosophy, University of Potsdam "Not Yet – The Philosophical Significance of Aesthetics"
• Eric Alliez, CRMEP "Undoing the Image"

12.30-13.45 Lunch

13.45-16.00 The Dissolution of Artistic Limits: Objects, Events, Ideas

• Juliane Rebentisch, SfB/Institute for Philosophy, University of Potsdam "Aesthetic Autonomy and Contemporary Art"
• Sebastian Egenhofer, University of Basel "Aesthetic Materiality in Conceptualism"
• Peter Osborne, CRMEP "The Fiction of the Contemporary"

16.00-16.30 Coffee

16.30-17.45 Keynote lecture 1 Art & Language – artists and writers title tba (a three-hander)

18.00-19.00 Drinks reception

Day 2

09.30-10.00 Coffee

10.00–11.15 Keynote lecture 2 Luis Camnitzer, artist and writer "The Two Versions of Santa Anna's Leg and Other Things"

11.15-13.30 Aesthetics of Post-Autonomy: Institution, Collaboration, Participation

• Susanne Leeb, SfB "Human Rights as 'Compass' for Art"
• Stewart Martin, CRMEP "The Subsumption of Art by Capital"
• Brian Holmes, writer and critic "Rules of the Game: the Artistic Device and the Articulation of Public Speech"

13.30-14.30 Lunch

14.30-16.45 Exhibition-Value: Aesthetics of Curation in a Global Artworld

• Dorethea Von Hantelmann, SfB "The Rise of Exhibitions and the Exhibition as Art"
• Charles Merewether, curator "A Work in Progress"
• Pamela Lee, Stanford University "Not Politics as Usual: on the Political 'Problem' at the Venice Biennale"

16.45–17.15 Closing Discussion

Further details: http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/crmep/EVENTS/AestheticsandContemporaryArt.htm.

FELLOWSHIPS: Stone Summer Theory Institute, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, July 2008.

The Stone Summer Theory Institute is week-long school in contemporary art theory. It is held in Chicago, in July, at the School of the Art Institute. It will result in a series of books involving over 300 scholars. Public events include evening lectures and roundtable discussions. Materials are also available for teachers, and school groups are welcome. During the week, the faculty lead 27 hours of seminars. The seminars are closed to the public but open to 15 Fellows; the deadline for applications is May 5. Further information is here: http://www.stonesummertheoryinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=27.