[Please note: The original dates for this symposium (23-24 Nov 12)
clashed with Thanksgiving in the U.S. The symposium will now take
place on 7th and 8th of December.]

A symposium organised by Deborah Sutton (Lancaster University), Deborah
Swallow (Courtauld Institute of Art) and Sarah Turner (York
University).

This symposium addresses one of the most significant lives and art
histories of the twentieth century; that of Stella Kramrisch.
Kramrisch's career spanned Central Europe, India, Great Britain and the
United States. The personal legacy of her influence is considerable;
her reputation - still mediated by the memories of those who knew her -
endures in South Asia, Europe and North America. Her scholarship on the
art, architecture and visual cultures of South Asia remains
redoubtable, even canonical, though her arguments often find little
currency in contemporary scholarship on the materials she studied.
Equally considerable is the material legacy of her work as a collector,
connoisseur and curator of Indian art. An individual of immense
personal charisma, Kramrisch subsisted within a series of intense
personal and intellectual relationships during her life yet she
presents an elusive figure for biography. Mythologies of Kramrisch's
extraordinary life permeate far more freely than attested biographical
narratives, an elision Kramrisch herself occasionally encouraged.
This symposium desires to bring together scholars interested in any
aspect of Kramrisch's work and career. A series of papers and
roundtable discussion will map the current field of research on
Kramrisch's work and life. Papers are invited which consider
biographical, intellectual and practical aspects of Kramrisch's work
and the networks in which she framed and formed her work. Held at the
Courtauld Institute of Art, where Kramrisch lectured in the second half
of the 1930s, this symposium will also be of interest to those working
on the art-historiography of South Asia. Suggested topics for
consideration are:

- The practices of acquisition, collection and curation
- The influence of Bengali artists and art history
- Iconography and iconology
- Aesthetic theory and the plastic arts
- Kramrisch and interwar art histories
- Arts, Artefacts and Crafts
- The influence of Jungian thought

Please send abstracts of 250 words (by the 31st July) to: Deborah
Sutton, d.suttonlancaster.ac.uk<mailto:d.suttonlancaster.ac.uk>

Dr Deborah Sutton
Department of History,
Lancaster University.
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/history/profiles/Deborah-Sutton/