Sculpture in Arcadia: gardens, parks and woodlands as settings for
sculptural encounters from the 18th to 21st century

February 26th 2007, 11am - 6.30pm
University of Reading, Nike Theatre

This one day symposium will ask about the characteristics of sculpture
planned for Arcadian and pastoral settings. What is the nature of the
sculptural encounter when sculpture is viewed outside the museum or urban
setting, and what are the sculptural meanings generated in such contexts?
How have gardens and sculpture trails been planned so as to propose scripts
for the visitor¹s viewing experience? What kinds of audiences have been
imagined for such works? What connections can be traced between
eighteenth-century garden sculpture and their modern equivalents? How have
the uses of terms such as Œpastoral¹ and Œarcadian¹ changed? What kinds of
connotations - gendered, aesthetic, political - are invoked when Œnature¹
and Œsculpture¹ are brought into juxtaposition? Papers will explore the
settings for sculpture including architectural structures such as pavilions
and plinths, and formal and informal planting in gardens, parks and managed
woodland. While eighteenth-century gardens and modern sculptures have been
studied extensively in the context of their particular periods, this
symposium aims to trace the connections, continuities and discontinuities
between the earlier period and contemporary pastoral settings for sculpture,
including the contemporary preservation and re-presentation of
eighteenth-century sculpture for modern audiences.

This symposium takes place at the University of Reading, close to some of
the most celebrated eighteenth-century gardens in Europe, Stowe and Rousham.
Papers cover all periods from the eighteenth century to the present day in
Europe and North America.

Programme
Registration from 10 am.

11- 1:
Chair: Eckart Marchand
Keynote Speaker
Dr Ulrich Mueller, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet, Jena,
Rousham¹s Arcadian Fields

Marcus Becker, Humboldt Universitaet, Berlin
Meeting Immaterial Gods? Copies of Antique Sculptures in German Sentimental
Landscape Gardens
Robert Neal, University of Essex,
Adorning nature: emblematic sculpture in the early eighteenth-century garden
Agnieszka Whelan, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
On the statuary in the 18th century garden of Pulawy in Poland

Lunch

2-4
Chair: Gerhard Bissell
Keynote Speaker
Dr Patrick Eyres, New Arcadian Press and University of Leeds,
A Peoples¹ Arcadia: the public gardens of Ian Hamilton Finlay in relation to
Little Sparta

Katie Campbell, University of Bristol
Updating Elysium: Twentieth-Century Memorials: Sculpture and Settings
Rebecca Reynolds, University of Chicago,
The Green Cube: Developing a Site for Minimalism at Storm King in the early
1970s

Tea

4.30 - 6.30
Chair: Sue Malvern
Keynote Speaker
Professor Antje von Graevenitz, University of Cologne,
The Avant-Gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay in "Little Sparta, Stonypath²: an
arcadia - by no means.

Joy Sleeman, Slade School of Fine Art and Nick Alfrey, University of
Nottingham
ŒThe contemporary "sculpture park² is not - and is not considered to be - an
art garden, but an art gallery out-of-doors.¹ Ian Hamilton Finlay

Plenary discussion
Symposium close and reception

Sue Malvern, Eckart Marchand and Gerhard Bissell.
Department of History of Art and Architecture
School of Humanities
The University of Reading
Whiteknights
PO Box 218
Reading RG6 6AA

Cost: £40 including lunch, refreshments and wine reception. Concessions and
students: £15 (please supply proof of status at time of booking).

To book, and for details of the symposium venue, please contact:
Nina Leontieff, Administrator, School of Humanities
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Whiteknights PO Box 218
Reading RG6 6AA

Tel: +44 (0)1183788143 Fax: +44 (0)1183788919
Email: n.leontieffreading.ac.uk
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/humanities/