Pas de Deux: Couples and Collaboration in Modern Italian Art,
Edited volume by Sharon Hecker and Teresa Kittler

We welcome proposals from scholars in all fields that explore productive exchanges and reciprocal ways of working by couples in the arts.

We seek to analyze the ways in which such emphasis on partnership and dialogue transforms, reconfigures, or allows us to think differently about artistic practice. As a counter to the narrative of the lone male artist and critic—one that has endured in Italy in spite of critical challenges—this anti-heroic enquiry asks to what extent do exchanges between couples form part of the narrative of artistic production throughout the twentieth century and into the present day in the Italian peninsula? What forms did such partnerships take and what was the nature of the exchange? And how might it be possible to explore this phenomenon or way of working from a range of practices?

This could include but is not limited to essays on artists, authors, poets, journalists, designers, photographers; on intimate relationships as well as long-standing friendships, working partnerships and dialogues across disciplines (e.g., artists and critics) (some possible examples include Enzo Mari and Lea Vergine, Ugo and Antonia Mulas, William and Lucia Drudi Demby). To what extent has the historical, religious, and political specificity of Italy fostered or circumvented such exchanges, their reception, and the way in which they have been publicly received and perceived?

We welcome essays that explore the critical challenges of the study of affective and intimate relationships.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: January 1, 2022