Modernist Sculpture and Culture: Historiographical Approaches and Critical Analyses
International Conference
University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Art History

Modern sculpture and its chronological, spatial, and terminological (re)defining poses a permanent challenge to researchers. Hence, this conference is conceived as a platform for considering wider contextual boundaries in sculptural production between the last decades of the 19th century and the mid-1970s such as: social conditions, historico-political events, economic circumstances and aesthetic demands. Special attention will be given to the phenomena in the field of sculpture excluded from the dominant art historical narratives, such as gender issues and similar particular perspectives. Furthermore, the conference will include a discussion on a variety of forms in which sculpture is manifested and produced; from traditional models and procedures such as casting, chiselling, carving, to conceptual turns and the creation of a brand new visual language of sculpture as well as terms used to describe it. Thus, the platform will support critical evaluations and analyses of the approaches employed in modern sculpture production up to now, and attempt to suggest or define new art historical insights as well as methodologies used in research and analyses of modern sculpture.

Furthermore, the focus of attention will be on geographic and national spaces outlining various influences, exchanges or clashes in which the movements of sculptors and their work through different European and global political and cultural geographies can be tracked (in the form of exhibitions, acquisitions, and public reception). It will be important to highlight the category of “publicness” and “visibility” of sculpture and ways in which it is achieved; from public monuments as the most representative mediators of complex socio-political and economic factors, to chamber sculptures most frequently mediated via temporary exhibitions and means of technical reproduction (catalogues, books, newspapers, etc.), from their making and installation in public spaces, to their destruction and potential rehabilitation/historisation.


Programme:

DAY 1: 26/10/2017 (Thursday)
Beginning: 15:00
Location: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split / Filozofski fakultet u Splitu, Conference Hall of the Centre Studia Mediterranea / Konferencijska dvorana Centra Studia Mediterranea (Poljana kraljice Jelene 2/III. floor, 21000 Split)

15:00 – 15:40
Welcome speeches, introductory notes, conference opening.

15:40 – 16:40
Keynote presentation + discussion
Penelope Curtis: Modern Sculpture: Beginnings and Ends

16:40 – 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 – 18:00
Keynote presentation + discussion
Catherine Moriarty: Sculpture on the Crossroad: Object, Context and Inquiry

18:00 – 18:20 Coffee break

18:20 – 20:00
SESSION 1: Modernist Sculpture and Criticism; Modernist Sculpture Beyond its Time Frame and Formal Task
Hans Bloemsma: Giotto and Modernist Sculpture
Tarquin Sinan: The New Generation; Behind or Ahead of the Times. What Is the Place of This Sacrificed Generation in British Sculpture?
Hélène Zanin: A Heated Argument: The Quarrel Between Albert Elsen and Rosalind Krauss about Rodin's Multiples and Posthumous Casts in the 1980s
Ljiljana Kolešnik: The Politics of Kineticism and the „Ideology” of New Tendencies
Closing speech (Day 1)


DAY 2: 27/10/2017 (Friday)
PART 1 – Morning Sessions
Beginning: 9:00
Location: Meštrović Gallery / Galerija Meštrović (Šetalište Ivana Meštrovića 48, 21000 Split)

9:00 – 10:15
SESSION 2: Gender and modernist sculpture
Darija Alujević: Women Sculptors at the Spring Salon 1916-1928
Agata Jakubowska: En-gendering Post-war Modern Sculpture. Maria Pinińska-Bereś and Jerzy Bereś
Ana Kršinić Lozica: Beyond Visible: The Different Modernism of Vera Dajht Kralj

10:15 – 10:35 Coffee break

10:35 – 12:10
SESSION 3: Art and politics
Barbara Vujanović: Art, Friendship and Politics. Meštrović’s Contacts with Czech Politicians and Artists
Davorin Vujčić: Sculptures by Antun Augustinčić in the Function of Cultural Diplomacy
Ferenc Veress: Escape from the Communist Block: Victor Roman’s Case (1937-1995)
Ivana Mance: Art Colonies and Art Symposiums in Late Socialist Yugoslavia – the Factory of Sculpture for Communal Use

12:10 – 12:30 Coffee break

12:30 – 13:45
SESSION 4: Individual perspectives
Olga Žakić: The Representation of the Concept of Darwinism in Sculpture in the Works of Simeon Roksandić
Svjetlana Sumpor: The Unusual Kinship of the Modern and Naïve / Petar Smajić
Margarida Brito Alves and Patricia Rosas: From Poetry to Sculpture: Salette Tavares

13:45 - 14:45 Lunch break

14:45 – 15:45 Guided tour of Meštrović Gallery

PART 2: Afternoon sessions
Beginning: 16:45
Location: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split / Filozofski fakultet u Splitu, Conference Hall of the Centre Studia Mediterranea / Konferencijska dvorana Centra Studia Mediterranea (Poljana kraljice Jelene 2/III. floor, 21000 Split)

16:45 – 18:00
SESSION 5: The monument question
Vinko Srhoj and Karla Lebhaft: Public Sculpture: The Symbolic in the Gap Between the Figurative and Abstract
Sanja Horvatinčić: Rethinking the Monument. Dialogical and Anti-monumental Strategies of Yugoslav Memorial Practices
Božo Kesić: Echoes of Socialist Modernism in Croatian Public Monuments of the ‘90s and 2000s

18:00 – 18:20 Coffee break

18:20 – 20:00
SESSION 6: Formal boundaries and possibilities for different sculptural language
Shahar Knafo: New Material, New Techniques, New Terminology
Daniel Zec: The Typological Classification of Portrait Sculpture as a Contribution to Research of the Manifestations of Modern Sculpture in Croatia
Nataša Ivančević: The Turn of the Traditional Paradigm of Shaping Human Figure in the Art of the Sixth Decade of the Twentieth Century
Dora Derado: The “Readymade” Paradigm Shift

Closing speech


The conference is part of the research project Manifestations of Modern Sculpture in Croatia: Sculpture on the Crossroads between Socio-political Pragmatism, Economic Possibilities and Aesthetical Contemplation (https://crosculpture.wixsite.com/crosculpture-hrzz)

Organization:
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split
Poljicka cesta 35, 21000 Split, Croatia

Partner institution:
Ivan Meštrović Museums, Split
Setaliste Ivana Mestrovica 46, 21000 Split, Croatia

Contact:
cro.sculpturegmail.com