IAS at CAA
2014 102nd College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, February 12-15
The IAS will host two sessions, as well as its annual business meeting, at the 102nd CAA Annual Conference, Chicago.
Business Meeting
All members and prospective members are encouraged to attend our annual business meeting. Light breakfast will be served.
CFP: Long Session: Periodization Anxiety in Italian Art: Renaissance, Baroque, or Early Modern?
Frances Gage, Buffalo State, State University of New York; and Eva Struhal, Université Laval.
The catchall term “early modern” is now omnipresent in art history of both the East and West, though what it means, its historical implications and its periodization, are rarely discussed in our discipline. In American academe, the study of this period has seen a broadening of geographical constraints and a shift in chronology, suggesting that the new terminology is more than the idea of a “longue-durée.” Questions that we want to address in our session are: What are the particular implications of the term for the study of Italian Art? What are this term’s methodological or ideological advantages? Is it appropriate to the period in question or are there distinct periods in early modernity? If so, how should they be signaled? Is “early modern” appropriate to non-Western art history? Does it render this period into a mere prelude to modernity? Does it reflect the tendency to occlude historical ruptures and constitute, in part, the growing marginalization of historical inquiry? We invite contributions to this session that reflect on the meaning and applicability of the term “early modern” in the history of art.
CFP: Short Session: “Futuro Anteriore”: Cultural Self-Appropriation as Catalyst in the Art of Italy
Organizers: Irina D. Costache and Alison L. Perchuk, California State University, Channel Islands.
The development of Italian art has been framed by a paradoxical dichotomy: even as artists produced innovative works with far-reaching effects, they rooted these endeavors in the peninsula’s own past, appropriated and reinvented. The political and social tensions seemingly inherent in Italy’s fractured geography have more than once made the past a point of regional or national (to use the term loosely) convergence, whether as a reclamation of an era or as isolated quotations. The Italian Renaissance is only the best known of these fertile explorations of the past; other episodes include ancient Rome’s adaptations of the arts of Greece and Magna Graecia, the Counterreformation papacy’s use of Rome’s medieval artistic heritage, Mussolini’s obsession with Roman architecture and urbanism, and the wide-ranging historical references of modern and contemporary artists and architects. Each of these moments of what we might call cultural self-appropriation entails more than dry citations: the transformations effected by Italy’s artists presuppose deep emotional and intellectual engagement with preceding epochs undertaken hand in hand with bold projects to reinvigorate the present and re-imagine the future. This short session seeks presentations from historians, theorists, and practitioners of art, design, and architecture whose work responds to the content and spirit of this topic. We are interested in projects that aim to reveal, examine, or create asynchronous appropriations/self-appropriations as a way of constructing “Italian” cultural identity. Of particular interest are collaborative projects, and projects that envision these processes as conversations enriching the past as well as the present and future. Alternative presentation formats are encouraged. Our goal for this session is to create a environment within which to offer and discuss provisional accounts of how cultural self-appropriation operates within, and may serve as a relevant identifying marker of, Italian art (and) history.
CAA Board Elections
After the CAA Nominating Committee announces its slate for the 2014-2018 term in late 2013, CAA members will be invited to cast their votes and submit their proxies online. Results of the 2013 Board of Directors Election.
Past IAS at CAA Sessions
2013 101st College Art Association Annual Conference, New York
2012 100th College Art Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles
2011 99th College Art Association Annual Conference, New York
2010 98th College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago
