Call for Papers

"American Artists in Munich. Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange
Processes"

Deadline: April 15, 2007

In 2003, a number of institutions in Munich decided to found an informal
research group on the history of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
Current members of the research group are: Akademie der Bildenden Künste
(Prof. Dr. Walter Grasskamp, Dr. Birgit Jooss);
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Institut für Kunstgeschichte (Prof. Dr.
Frank Büttner, Prof. Dr. Hubertus Kohle), Institut für Kunstpädagogik
(Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kehr); Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Dr.
Christian Fuhrmeister, Prof. Dr. Wolf Tegethoff). For the upcoming event,
Susanne Böller M.A. (Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus) has been co-opted.

Following the two conferences held in 2005 and 2006, respectively -
"Nationale Identitäten - Internationale Avantgarden. München als
europäisches Zentrum der Künstlerausbildung" (see
http://www.zikg.eu/main/2005/kunstakademie-europa/index.htm for the program
and http://www.zeitenblicke.de/2006/2/ for the online publication of the
conference proceedings) and "Zwischen deutscher Kunst und internationaler
Modernität. Formungen in der Künstlerausbildung 1918 bis 1968"
(http://www.zikg.eu/main/2006/1918-1968/programm.htm; publication
forthcoming) -, the research group now announces a third conference, in
cooperation with the Terra Foundation for American Art
(http://www.terraamericanart.org):

"American Artists in Munich. Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange
Processes"

This international conference aims at exploring the phenomenon of artistic
migration and transfer in a case study. Given the contemporary significance
of global migration, this topic is no longer only a field of 19th century
studies. In particular, we wish to investigate the attraction of the
self-proclaimed "Kunststadt"/"City of the Art(s)" for American Artists from
the mid-19th century to World War I and beyond: Who came, when, and why?

Speakers are to look at the general influences on the decision of a place
of study, which depended not just on the attractiveness of a city and its
art institutions, but also on the students' own cultural background. What
was the significance of the American artistic community in Munich? How did
leading compatriots shape the growing American colonies in Bavaria? What,
in particular, prompted the Americans to come to Munich: The academy's
renown in teaching technical skills, or rather the city's bustling art
scene? To what extent did the change in genre (from landscape to history
painting) contribute to Munich's attractiveness, as opposed to Düsseldorf,
which had basically been the Americans' first choice until the mid-19th
century? How influential was, finally, the appeal of Paris as an
avant-garde center in debasing the training in Munich as old-fashioned and
traditional?

Furthermore, it is important to learn more about how the Munich school and
its protagonists became known in the United States. Existing studies of
American painters in Munich focus on leading representatives from the peak
of the movement in the early 1870s and 1880s, when the realism of the
returning artists' paintings caused something of a sensation in the
American "art world". However, to do justice to the complex phenomenon, it
must be investigated in its multi-faceted entirety, taking into account the
development of styles and genres over more than half a century, experienced
by approx. 420 American students - which formed indeed one of the largest
groups of non-German-speaking students enrolled at the Academy -, and also
by the unknown number of American artists who studied elsewhere in town.
Numerous private schools and studios, whose histories also await research,
offered valuable alternatives.

Equally important is the study of key figures, such as Frank Duveneck, a
leading representative of portrait and landscape painting, and a popular
teacher; Karl von Marr, American student, teacher and later even director
of the Munich academy; or Hans Hofmann, who ran a successful private school
in Munich and later became a leading figure of Abstract Expressionism.
However, the conference will not be limited to representatives of the
academy. There will also be a focus on artists like Marcel Duchamp who
worked in Munich before he became a seminal avant-garde figure in the
United States, or Grant Wood, who came to Munich in 1928 to visit the
museums and to oversee the production of the monumental window he had
designed for the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids.

Following the holistic approach adopted for the previous conferences, the
papers will not only indicate what the artists received in Munich, but also
how they in turn fuelled the city's artistic life. Another interesting
topic is the way in which American artists transformed the results of their
stay in Munich upon return to their native country; it is precisely this
dual or bifocal perspective which seems best suited for an analysis of this
give-and-take of cultural exchange.

The two and a half day conference will take place in the lecture hall of
the Amerika Haus München e.V. (http://www.amerikahaus.de) from October
9-11, 2007. The official language of the conference will be English.
However, in the exceptional case that scholars propose a paper in German,
we will consider providing simultaneous translation.

Papers are invited from international scholars in the field. Please send an
abstract of one page (not more than 500 words) in digital form either to:

Prof. Dr. Hubertus Kohle
Institut für Kunstgeschichte
Georgenstr. 7
80799 München
Germany

hubertus.kohle(at)lrz.uni-muenchen.de

or to

Dr. Christian Fuhrmeister
Projektreferent
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte
Meiserstr. 10
80333 München
Germany

c.fuhrmeister(at)zikg.eu

before April 15, 2007. In early May, all entrants will be notified.