(1) Formalism Before Clement Greenberg
(2) Geoaesthetics in Early Modern Worlds
(3) Taking Stock: Future Direction(s) in the Study of Collecting

------------------------

(1) Formalism Before Clement Greenberg

From: Katherine Kuenzli <kkuenzliwesleyan.edu>
Date: Apr 24, 2015

This session seeks to historicize formalist ideas and methods by recovering the conditions that led artists, critics, and art historians between 1880 and the 1920s to view form as an independent, expressive language. What defined these formalist methods in art criticism, art practice, and art history, and what, if anything, did these different discourses that shaped them have in common? How were ideas on form and its perception shaped by economic, social, and scientific developments? To what degree was the analysis of form consistent with historical methodology, and to what degree did it seek to uncover universal constants? How did formalism (or reactions to it) shape disciplinary approaches to non-western art? On what basis did artists articulate formal continuities in art and what led them to invent radical, non-objective languages? We invite papers that explore the multiple and varied meanings assigned to form by late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century artists, critics, and art historians.

Proposals are due by May 8, 2015 to Katherine Kuenzli, Wesleyan University; and Marnin Young, Yeshiva University. Email kkuenzliwesleyan.edu and myoung2yu.edu

Proposal should include the following items:
1. Completed session participation proposal form, located at the end
of the pdf
(http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2016CallforParticipation.pdf), or an
email with this information.
2. Preliminary abstract of one to two double-spaced, typed pages.
3. Letter explaining speaker’s interest, expertise in the topic, and CAA membership status.
4. CV (2 pages)

------------------

(2) Geoaesthetics in Early Modern Worlds

From: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut <khi-pressekhi.fi.it>
Date: 24.04.2015

Hannah Baader, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut and Sugata Ray, University of California, Berkeley

This panel engages with the theory and praxis of geoaesthetics in early modern worlds. Defining geoaesthetics as an emerging approach in art history that reflects on the reciprocal relationship between the nonhuman and the human in shaping the earth, the panel seeks a deeper horizon for the concept-term. How might we understand historical constructions of nature and the natural environment, along with their aesthetic dimensions? How do we think of the agentive force of matter and nonhuman life in relation to human action? How was geoaesthetics visually configured in geographically distinct, yet interconnected, terrains through non- human and human agency? How did striated knowledge systems, materialities, and artistic practices shape such configurations? How do we theorize geoaesthetics in relation to economic and political processes and transformations? We invite contributions from art historians, artists, archaeologists, conservationists, and museum professionals to reengage with relational practices produced through human interaction with geographical, geological, botanical, zoological, astronomical, and climatic formations.

Please submit a completed session participation proposal form, an abstract (1-2 pages, double spaced), a letter of interest, and a cv to both chairs by May 8, 2015 (sugataberkeley.edu; baaderkhi.fi.it). For full guidelines on abstract submissions and participation, please see: http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2016CallforParticipation.pdf

--------------------------

(3) Taking Stock: Future Direction(s) in the Study of Collecting

From: Christina M Anderson <cm.andersonusa.net>
Date: Apr 25, 2015

The study of collecting is at a crossroads. ‘Collection’ has often meant ‘art collection’, overlooking the broader range of objects and behaviors involved; while fascination with the ‘wunderkammer’ has centered attention on European models, even when objects themselves were not European. The rise of museum studies, furthermore, has shifted attention away from the individual practice of collecting to institutional concerns about conservation and deaccession. Recent approaches to collecting, intended to broaden its study, include cross-cultural encounters, the circulation of knowledge, the cultural biographies and social lives of things, the art market and the collecting practices of particular social groups. This panel aims to explore the current and future states of the field through case studies that utilize innovative and forward-looking methodologies. Presentations may, for example, challenge the dominance of traditional sources such as inventories and biographies; present new interpretations or applications of terms like connoisseurship; or explore potential insights offered by the study of synesthesia or semiotics.
Please submit a completed session participation proposal form, an abstract (1-2 pages, double spaced), a letter of interest, and a cv to Christina Anderson (cm.andersonusa.net) by May 8, 2015. (See 2016 Call for Participation on the College Art Association website for full details.)