CALL FOR PAPERS

College Art Association
Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, 22-25 February 2006

"The Cultural Aesthetics of Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century"

Co-Chairs:
Alden Cavanaugh, Indiana State University
Michael Yonan, Saint Louis University

This session seeks to investigate the cultural significance of
porcelain, through its physical and aesthetic qualities, as part of a
larger nexus of concepts about beauty, elegance, and social identity in
eighteenth-century culture. We are also interested in the idea of
geographically specific behaviors related to porcelain objects. Some
questions to be addressed include interpreting porcelain's bright beauty
as a metaphor for personal or cultural identities; the relationship
between porcelain and touch, both in its evocation of smooth skin as
well as the physical sensations it provides during handling; porcelain's
simultaneous strength and delicacy, which render it both fragile and
unusually strong; porcelain's relationship to space and environment, and
its use as an inspiration for architecture; porcelain as a hard canvas
upon which images can be situated; porcelain as a conveyor of light, not
only through its translucence but also glazing; and lastly porcelain as
a magical, semi-mystical substance whose creation involves transforming
dirt into brilliant ceramic through exposure to fire. By examining how
visual qualities influenced the potential interpretations of porcelain,
this session seeks to expand the range of critical frameworks applied to
eighteenth-century decorative arts.

Send proposals to:

Alden Cavanaugh
Department of Art
Indiana State University
Fine Arts 108
Terre Haute, IN 47809
araldenisugw.indstate.edu

and

Michael Yonan
Department of Fine and Performing Arts
Saint Louis University
221 N. Grand Blvd.
St Louis, MO 63103
yonanmeslu.edu

Submission deadline: 13 May 2005. Electronic submissions are welcome.

For more information about the conference, consult the CAA website at
http://www.collegeart.org/conference/2006.html