Photomechanical talks at the Institute of Art History, Prague.

February–May 2024

The PhotoMatrix project (Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) organizes four talks of the Collegium Historiae Artium lecture series:

14 February 2024
Meghan Forbes (independent scholar, New York)
"Devětsil and the Aura of Mechanical Reproducibility"

28 February 2024
Camilla Balbi (IAH CAS, Prague)
"A Forgotten Media Interest: Erwin Panofsky and Photography"

24 April 2024
Anthony Hamber (independent photographic historian, London)
"The 1840s: Transformations in Reprographics"

15 May 2024
Kim Timby (École du Louvre, Paris)
"Bringing Home the Museum: The Colour Turn in Art Reproduction in the Mid-Twentieth Century"

Venue: Institute of Art History of the CAS, Prague, Husova 4, general meeting room (117), 1st floor

Time: 4:30 PM

For abstracts, visit https://photomatrix.cz/outputs#events

For the Zoom link, please contact us at masterovaudu.cas.cz

About PhotoMatrix Project
Going back to the advent of photomechanical reproductions of art in periodicals at the beginning of the 20th century, PhotoMatrix examines the far-reaching consequences of this media revolution on the distribution and popularization of art among experts and the general public. The project focuses on art and art historical journals published in Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, and Russia from 1900 to 1950. The reproductions featured in these journals will be examined quantitatively, through the methods of digital art history, and qualitatively, based on archival sources (publishers, photo agencies, photographers, printers). What new narratives of art emerge if we look into this period through the lens of reproductions printed in period journals? What new insights does this historical inquiry open into the use of remote access to art in the digital age?