[Extended deadline: 16 Apr 23]

The Portuguese Association of Art Historians (APHA) is currently promoting the V Congress of Art History, with the theme “Art History: Legacies, Debates and New Perspectives”. This meeting aims to encourage and affirm the area of Art History in the national scientific environment and to project it internationally. We therefore appeal to the active participation of all those who make the discipline their modus vivendi, such as researchers, scholars, teachers, students and other professionals connected with heritage, whether in monuments or museums, or in town councils, libraries or archives.

Interested in discussing and reconsidering the concept of the discipline, its own work methodology and the main challenges faced today by the art historian, APHA proposes three distinct areas of reviewing: the theoretical inheritance received by the local Art History; the current debates and research paths; and the new directions of Art History, at an international level.

Participants will be invited to demonstrate the relevance and pertinence of the Art History for the knowledge of the artistic object, starting from case studies – a building, a canvas, a tapestry or a tile set, among others – or from broader issues – a period, a theory or a school of thought.

Topic 1 – Legacies. For this theme, we accept proposals that seek to address the following questions: What is the intellectual profile of theorists in the field of Art? What epistemological fields have they explored? What innovations have they brought to the methodology of analysis of Art History? What parallels can we establish with what has happened abroad? Furthermore, the survey of primary sources and the strengthening of the concept of “Heritage” are also among the main achievements of the period. What role did the museological centers played at that time in the in-depth study of their collections? What was the relevance for the discipline of the first intentions to inventory works of art? What echoes did the Art History in Portugal have abroad? What were the main advances achieved by the discipline during the 19th and 20th centuries? Which artists and works were the most studied and why?

Topic 2 – Debates. The various historiographical currents are, more than ever, in confrontation. If before formalism and historical positivism debated with iconology, sociology or micro-history, nowadays gender studies, post-colonialism and material culture seem to dominate the concerns of authors, both in published works and research projects, and even on wider stages of dissemination. What are the scientific values of each of these currents? How can they cohabit in a constructive and critical perspective? Does it make sense today to maintain an Art History stuck to its primates, or is it perhaps more desirable to contemplate new approaches that put apparently consolidated knowledge to the test? Does it make sense today to revisit old themes? What role should Universities and their Research Units play in the steadiness and affirmation of Art History?

Topic 3 – New perspectives. In the 21st century, Art History has been able to adapt itself to the new challenges of society and to reinvent itself by expanding its disciplinary branches. What is the place of Art History in the digital world? What are the limits of Art History? How will it take advantage of the emergence and competition from other scientific areas such as Conservation and Restoration and Museology? How will it accommodate the themes of Art Markets or Art Curatorship in the coming years? What space will be reserved for it in the field of Digital Humanities? Are the foundations and the purposes of Art History eventually at risk?

Proposals
All proposals will be analyzed through double blind peer-review, carried out by the Scientific Committee of the Congress.

Proposals should be sent to: vcongressoaphagmail.com
Each proposal must contain: name and email contact; affiliation; brief CV (max. 1 page); title; abstract of 2500 characters (with spaces) or 1 page (11/2, font 12, Times).
The deadline for submission is April 16th, 2023 [Extended deadline].

Authors will be notified of the reviewers’ decision by June 15th, 2023.

For more information please see: https://apha.pt/archives/6113