On 19 and 20 May 2022, the ESNA Conference 'Ways of Studying: Towards New Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art' will take place, organised by the European Society for Nineteenth-Century Art (ESNA) in collaboration with the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History.

Ways of Studying: Towards New Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art

In the autumn of 2020, the Van Gogh Museum, in collaboration with ESNA and the University of Amsterdam, organized a series of roundtable discussions that from various angles sought to address the question of “diversifying” the canon of nineteenth-century art and making art-historical practice more “inclusive.” The aim of these meetings, followed up in January 2021 by the annual ESNA Winter Seminar on the same topic, was to formulate concrete research strands, which, rather than simply broadening the nineteenth-century canon, would substantially change it. Ideally, these would give direction to university teaching, exhibitions, and collection building over the next five years.

It soon became clear, however, that the terms “diversification” and “inclusion” were in themselves problematic, as they imply that the current disciplinary system would remain intact. One might study art from other parts of the world or by “Other” creators, one might expand the canon, but the idea that the history of nineteenth-century art followed a certain developmental pattern, one that culminated in an avant-garde that then went on to shape Modernism, would not necessarily be affected. Instead, one might better seek to fundamentally decolonize the history of nineteenth-century art. This term, too, is not unproblematic: it has a particular historical dimension, but in recent times has come to stand more generally for a call to both recognize and challenge hierarchies in and beyond the academy and the art world, not only those resulting from concrete actions in the (colonial) past but also those linked to questions of class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Ideally, adecolonized history of nineteenth-century art would not only add new voices and objects to the existing canon but would productively mobilize the awareness of the ways in which what we study, teach, and display reflects European hegemony. Although this topic is clearly not new, even in the study of nineteenth-century art, specific recent events and debates, as well as fundamental shifts within both academia and society at large, lend it a particular sense of urgency.

ESNA Conference 2022

The annual ESNA Conference 2022, Ways of Studying: Towards New Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art, expands on this initial phase of reflection, setting it in an international context. We understand the conference as a kind of laboratory, a place for experiment and exchange. Taking a two-pronged approach, the papers will take case studies as their starting point, but also pinpoint and further explore the implications of these new discoveries for the field in general. In this way, the conference presents new information and address questions of methodology, i.e. “ways of studying”.

Programme:

Thursday, 19 May, 1-5pm

13:00-13.15 Welcome and introduction: Rachel Esner (Co-convenor, University of Amsterdam)
13.15 Session 1: Other Media, Other Worlds (Chair: Mayken Jonkman, RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History)
- María Beatriz H. Carrion (Graduate Center of the City University of New York), A Transatlantic Southwest: Dutch Mementos of California, the Grand Canyon, and New Mexico
- Carla Hermann (Rio de Janeiro Cultural Heritage Institute), The Erasure of the Indigenous Past in British Panoramas of 19th-Century Latin America
- Merel van Tilburg, (University of Groningen), “To call upon art to help a people love its colony.” A Necrography of Hélène de Rudder’s Monumental Colonialist Wall Hangings for the Congolese Section of the 1897 Brussels International Exhibition

Reflection and discussion: Karwan Fatah-Black (Leiden University)

14.45 Break

15:15 Session 2: Neglected Actors and Contexts (Chair: Jenny Reynaerts, Rijksmuseum)
- Evelien de Visser (RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History), Shedding Stereotypes and the Art Historical Canon. New Ways of Studying Male and Female Collectors of Contemporary Art in the Netherlands, 1870-1900
- Elli Leventaki (Athens School of Fine Arts), “Traditional” and “High” Art: An Intertemporal Story of Patriarchy
- Apolline Malevez (Queen’s University Belfast), Overlooked but Essential: The Domestic Servants of Fernand Khnopff and Théo Van Rysselberghe Reflection and discussion: Cordula Grewe (Indiana University Bloomington)

16.45-17.00 Closing remarks: Jan Dirk Baetens (Radboud University Nijmegen)

Friday, 20 May, 1-5pm
13:00 Welcome and introduction: Maite van Dijk (Co-convenor, Museum MORE)
13:15 Session 3: Old Sources for a New Art History (Chair: Marjan Sterckx, Ghent University)
- Galina Mardilovich (Independent scholar), Rethinking Failure in/of Russian Prints
- Anastasia Sabinina (European University at St. Petersburg), The Austro-Hungarian Exhibition of 1899-1900 in St. Petersburg: The Exhibition History Approach
- Anne Nike van Dam (Leiden University), Could We Have Been Different? Vestiges of Diverse Art History in 19th-Century Germany

Reflection and discussion: Sarah Knott (University of Indiana Bloomington)

14: 45 Break

15.15 Session 4: Towards New Museum Practices (Chair: Rachel Esner, Co-convenor, University of Amsterdam)
- Rasmus Kjaerboe (Danish Association of Art Historians), Changing Art History from Within the Museum? Topicality, Relevance and Nineteenth Century Art at The Hirschsprung Collection
- Freya Schwachenwald (TU Berlin), From “Copy” to “Art of the World”: Taste, Race, and “Authenticity” in 19th-Century Oil Painting
- Beatrice von Bormann (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam), Towards a New Collection Display: Challenges in Reframing the Collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Reflection and discussion: Tom van der Molen (Amsterdam Museum)

16:45-17.00 Closing remarks: Malika M’rani Alaoui (Ghent University

Information

Date: 19-20 May
Time: 13:00-17:00
Online via Zoom (you will receive a link after registration)
Language: English

Tickets

Available in the RKD webshop: https://rkd.nl/en/webshop
Regular: € 10
Students: € 5