Call for Papers:
Abstraction and Anthropomorphism in Postwar and Contemporary Sculpture

Session at the College Art Association Conference, Chicago

Chairs: Lisa Lee, University of Chicago; and Kate Nesin, Art Institute
of Chicago

This panel explores the persistence of the body in abstract sculpture,
whether as compositional allusion, as the phenomenological viewer, or as
the indexical trace or actual presence of the artist. It also considers
the ongoing revaluation of figuration and anthropomorphism in the
discourse surrounding sculpture since the postwar period. Compelled by a
surge in contemporary sculptural work that engages these issues, we wish
to ask questions such as: Has the figural been subsumed by or instead
sublimated into emphases on materiality and process? Is there room for a
sculptural "body" within current discussions of objecthood and
thingness, given the anthropomorphic language of agency and animation
available to both? Might abstraction help artists not just to
interrogate but possibly to recover the "statue" as a category of
advanced sculptural practice in the present day? We welcome papers that
take up ontological, perceptual, historical, and formal arguments.

Abstract, cover letter, a recent CV, and the CAA conference application
form should be emailed by May 6, 2013, to lisalee1uchicago.edu and/or
katenesingmail.com.

CAA Call for Participation, with submission guidelines:
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2014CallforParticipation.pdf