Call for Papers

Dialogues with Others: A Symposium with Hubert Damisch
University of Amsterdam, 28-29 May 2009

Scholars are invited to present papers in which they reflect upon Hubert
Damisch's ideas in relation to their own research. The contributions
will be followed by a panel discussion enabling Hubert Damisch to
respond to these interpretations of his thought.

Hubert Damisch (former director of studies, École des Hautes Études en
Sciences Sociales, Paris) is one of the foremost contemporary art
historians and theorists. The author of numerous essays and books that
range across periods from the Renaissance to the present, his writing
includes studies on painting, photography, film, literature and
architecture. In a series of groundbreaking works such as Théorie du
/nuage/: Pour une historie de la peinture (1972), Ruptures/cultures
(1976), Fenêtre jaune cadmium, ou les dessous de la peinture (1984),
L'Origine de la perspective (1987), Le Jugement de Paris (1992),
Skyline: La ville Narcisse (1996), Un Souvenir d'enfance par Piero della
Francesca (1997), La Dénivelée: A l'épreuve de la photographie (2001),
La Peinture en écharpe: Delacroix, la photographie (2001), and most
recently Ciné Fil (2008), Damisch works "at the seams between different
forms and substances of expression", while drawing upon the multiple
field of aesthetics, philosophy, mathematics, semiotics and
psychoanalysis. The aim of this conference is to bring together
contributions from scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds that
develop a dialogue with different aspects of Damisch's work and thought.

The guiding principle of Damisch's work is the conception of the work
of art as a 'theoretical model'; that is, the capacity of art to invent
paradigmatic structures, such as perspective, which operate on a both
technical and perceptual level. To conceive of the work of art as a
theoretical object, as Damisch proposes we do, is not to claim that the
work of art simply illustrates a theory; after all, perspective appeared
well in advance of its formalization by science. Rather, the careful
expose of such theoretical models must lead to a critical revision of
the categories and narratives that structure the history of art.
Damisch's notion of 'thickness' [épaisseur], for instance, performs
this critical work within the modernist field of aesthetics. Damisch's
excavation of the 'undersides' of painting, which was initiated by a
series of key essays on, amongothers, Pollock, Dubuffet, and Mondrian
that are assembled in Fenêtre jaune cadmium , has influenced more recent
discussions of the informe as a counter-modernist strategy.

Without doubt Damisch's writing has a profound impact on the manner in
which we may conceive of interdisciplinary research. Offering an
alternative to the approach of cultural studies or visual studies,
Damisch has argued that the 'paradigm' or 'theoretical object' of art,
while remaining attentive to the material specificity of artistic
practice, necessarily transverses various cultural domains. And, again
and again, Damisch's work returns to what is perhaps its core question:
"is there a mode of philosophizing that would require working as close
to art as possible, working along with it and together with its works?"

The conference aims to explore some of the challenges that Damisch has
posed to the writing of (art) history. Contributors may concentrate on
his dialogue with diverse fields of knowledge (psychoanalysis,
phenomenology, structuralism) and media (art, film, photography,
architecture) in order to assess the contribution of Damisch to an
interdisciplinary study and criticism of cultural history. We are
particularly interested in contributions that will address his more
recent interventions in the fields of architecture Skyline), photography
(La Dénivelée, La Peinture en écharpe), and cinema (Ciné Fil).

Please send your proposal (no more than 300 words) for a 20-minute paper
and a short biography to Sophie Berrebi (berrebiuva.nl) or Eric de
Bruyn (E.C.H.de.Bruynrug.nl). Please include 'Damisch' in the
subject-heading of your email.

Deadline: 16 March 2009

Sophie Berrebi
Art History Institute
University of Amsterdam
Herengracht 286
1016 BX Amsterdam
The Netherlands
berrebiuva.nl

Visit the website at http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/s.y.berrebi/