CONFERENCE
'The World Turned Inside Out': Bronze Casting in the 20th Century

10.00am - 6.15pm, Saturday 15 November 2008 (with registration from 9.30am)

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

For the world to lose its meaning, it is enough to turn it inside-out like
a glove, to invert the full and the empty.\' (Yve-Alain Bois, Formless: A
User's Guide)

For the uninitiated, casting can be a confounding process. This symposium
will bring together artists, art historians, curators, conservators, and
founders to discuss the technical and imaginative demands of an indirect
process of making, and to consider the historical persistence of a material
distinctive for its metamorphic possibilities.

The event will explore the diverse ways in which sculptors from the early
twentieth century to the present day have responded to the material,
technical, creative, and commercial requirements of bronze casting. It will
consider such questions as: the symbolic and cultural significance of the
medium of bronze; the changing relationship between artists and foundries
from the time of Rodin to an era of artistic de-skilling; the division of
art and artisanship, conception and making in contemporary art; the economy
of casting and the globalisation of the foundry industry; artistic training
and the shift from apprenticeship and medium-based pedagogic cultures to
'art in general'; recent theoretical and critical reflections on the
casting process, in particular concepts of indexicality and entropy; and
the material, social, and psychic economies of casting. The symposium will
conclude with a round table discussion on bronze casting today.

To book a place: Pounds 15 (Pounds 10 concessions; free for Courtauld
students) Please send a cheque made payable to 'Courtauld Institute of Art'
to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research
Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you
wish to book for the 'Bronze Casting in the 20th Century conference'. For
credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send
an e-mail to ResearchForumEventscourtauld.ac.uk

To book a place: Pounds 15 (Pounds 10 concessions; free for Courtauld
students) Please send a cheque made payable to 'Courtauld Institute of Art'
to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research
Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you
wish to book for the 'Bronze Casting in the 20th Century conference'. For
credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send
an e-mail to ResearchForumEventscourtauld.ac.uk

This conference has been organised in collaboration with the Institut
national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), Paris, and a second day will be held
on 17 December 2008 at the Musée Rodin in Paris.

Organised by Dr Alexandra Gerstein and Professor Mignon Nixon

PROGRAMME

9.30 - 10.00: Registration

10.00 - 11.30: SESSION 1

- Antoinette Le Normand-Romain (INHA, Paris), \'The Question of
Reproduction in Rodin's Work\'
- Sarah Wilson (Courtauld Institute of Art), \'Sexuality and the Sacred in
the Work of Germaine Richier\'
- Amélie Simier (Petit Palais, Paris), \'Casting for Posterity: The
Orchestration of Jules Dalou's Posthumous Casts\'

11.30 - 12.00: COFFEE/TEA BREAK

12.00 - 13.30: SESSION 2

- Derek Pullen (Tate), \'Plaster, Wax and Bronze - some Technical
Relationships in the Sculptures of Medardo Rosso\'
- Jed Morse (Nasher Center, Dallas), \'Role, Status, and Meaning of
Plasters: Case Studies from the Nasher Collection - Matisse, Lipchitz,
Picasso\'
- Juliet Haysom (artist), \'A Working Adaptation of Lost Wax\'

13.30 - 14.30: BREAK FOR LUNCH

14.30 - 16.30: SESSION 3

- James Boaden (Courtauld Institute of Art and Centre for the Study of
Surrealism and Its Legacies, University of Manchester ), \'Trompe l'oeil:
Jasper Johns and Painted Bronze\'
- Romolo Del Deo (artist), \'The Tactile Memory of Bronze\'
- Mignon Nixon (Courtauld Institute of Art), \'Erotics of Casting: Louise
Bourgeois\'
- William Cobbing (Central St Martins), \'The Entropic Cast of Gradiva\'

16.30 - 17.00: COFFEE/TEA BREAK

17.00 - 18.15: SESSION 4
Round table, Bronze Casting Today, with Rungwe Kingdon (Pangolin Foundry)
and and Sam Dalton (Crucible Foundry) and artists William Cobbing, Romolo
Del Deo and Juliet Haysom

18.15: RECEPTION

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Henry Moore
Foundation and of the Institut national d'histoire de l'art