First Call for Papers: 23rd Annual Conference of the South African Visual
Arts Historians (SAVAH), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 12
– 15 September 2007

‘SOUTH AFRICAN ART HISTORY IN AN AFRICAN CONTEXT’
Recent SAVAH conferences have served as platforms for critical debates on
transformation, with a focus on the extent to which these debates have
transpired within the context of institutional, historical, social and
political changes in South Africa. The forthcoming conference, at the
University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, aims to direct this focus
more clearly onto the disciplines of art history and visual arts studies
per se by interrogating the ways in which these essentially Western
disciplines are being (re)written and studied in South Africa in relation
to South Africa’s status within a wider African discourse.

We invite papers that address issues and problematics around the ways in
which art history and visual arts studies are theorised, studied, and
practised in the (South) African context, as well as papers that invoke
these theoretical issues in relation to artworks and art-making practices.
These may well engage issues raised by the following rubrics through
specific case studies:

Methodological issues in art history/visual arts studies in (South)
Africa: papers under this rubric could look at modes of writing as they
relate to artists’ biographies; ethnic classifications; constructions of
meaning; the art/craft debate; questioning the canon in relation to a
South African or wider African context.

Historiographical issues in art history/visual arts studies in (South)
Africa: papers under this rubric could include constructions of narrative
dealing with historical exclusions and inclusions; who has done the
writing; circulation and distribution; notions of ownership of knowledge;
the establishing of aesthetic value (as resistance / as convention).

The production and archiving of art history, i.e. the role of major
events, exhibitions, and competitions in the shaping of African discourse;
corporate support for the arts/corporate collections; the ‘afterlife’ of
catalogues; the role of commercial galleries; debates around public
space/public art and architecture; issues around digital / virtual
archiving.

Educational issues (possibly in a workshop format): how is art
history/visual studies taught at secondary and tertiary levels
; examining
the lack of art history/visual studies in the South African/African school
systems; engaging transformation within the context of visual studies;
publishing for education; research in education.

We also envision a student session for presentation of postgraduate
research that addresses these rubrics.

Please forward a provisional title and abstract (approx. 300 words) to
Prof. Anitra Nettleton, Division of Visual Arts, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050 / E-mail Anitra.Nettletonwits.ac.za by
Friday 13 April 2007.

Dr Jillian Carman
14 Lurgan Road
Parkview
Johannesburg
2193
South Africa
Tel +27 11 646 5039
Mobile 083 227 9843
Fax +27 11 710 6117
jilliancbellatrix.co.za