Call for Papers:

The Twelfth Annual Yale University American Art Graduate Symposium

Theme: Scarcity

Symposium Date: April 16, 2016

Keynote Speaker: Krista Thompson, Weinberg College Board of Visitors Professor, Department of Art History, Northwestern University

Although scarcity would seem to hinder artistic production, such a condition could be considered a catalyst for both artists and art historians. A host of environmental circumstances—including economic crises, ecological disasters, war and social conflict—have affected artists and craftsmen in the creation, completion, and marketing of their work. Art historical analysis is also shaped by limitations, ranging from a dearth of primary sources and biographical details to the rarity of works of art themselves.

The Twelfth Annual Yale University American Art Graduate Symposium invites papers that examine scarcity, shortage, and lack in the arts and material culture of the Americas, as well as their impact on American art history. How does a focus on scarcity—both its realities and its depictions—contribute to an expanded understanding of artistic production and reception in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean? What are the critical implications of such a focus? We welcome submissions from graduate students working across all time periods and media.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

- Scarcity, rarity, or shortage of materials, skill, or labor in artistic production
- Representations and rhetoric of poverty, famine, destruction, or deprivation in the arts
- Omissions, voids, or absences in the archive
- Preservation, restoration, conservation, and other measures to prevent the loss of information or objects
- Improvisation, recycling, or reuse in response to scarcity or lack
- The marketplace as an engine of scarcity, rarity, and luxury
- The recovery or revival of lost materials or techniques
- Iconoclasm and injunctions against artistic production
- The effect of embargoes, occupations, or war on artistic activity
- Impacts of extinction, genocide, disenfranchisement, or environmental destruction
- The depiction or use of fragments
- Consequences of excess: overexploitation of resources, saturation of the market, etc.

Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 350 words along with a CV to americanist.symposiumgmail.com by January 22, 2016. Accepted participants will be notified by February 8, 2016.