Reassessing the Symbolist Roots of Modernism

Panel at the annual conference of the Association of Art Historians,
31 march - 2 April, 2011, University of Warwick.

CFP: The Symbolist movement has often been framed as the final, often
decadent, stage of Renaissance humanism in which the art work functioned
as a means of communication. Symbolism continues to be referred to in a
language of decline and expiration, associated with an end -
fin-de-siècle - rather than a beginning or even part of a continuum.
Yet several key figures of Modernism - Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky,
Kupka, inter alia - had roots in Symbolism. Did early twentieth-century
modernists reject their Symbolist roots? Did they outgrow them? Were
there aspects of the Symbolist agenda that helped to shape emerging
Modernism? Did Symbolism have a role to play in the new aesthetics of
Modernism? This session invites papers that explore the relationship
between Symbolism and Modernism in the work of particular artists, in
specific art works, or from a theoretical point of view. Proposals
should be sent, by email, to both convenors.

Please send your paper proposal to the session convenor: Michelle Facos,
Indiana University, Bloomington (mfacosindiana.edu); Thor J. Mednick,
Missouri Southern State University (tmednickhotmail.com).