Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA), Professional Session
Call for Participation
New York, February 11 – 14, 2015
Registration deadline: May 9, 2014
“American art in unlikely places: exhibitions beyond the transatlantic axis”
Chair: Alex J Taylor, University of Oxford
What was the impact of the 125 American artworks that made their way to the 1910 Exposición Internacional del Centenario in Buenos Aires, Argentina? Or the 1940s exhibitions of American art reproductions mounted by the Office of War Information in Australia? Or the 1967 survey of post-war American printmaking whose extensive African tour began in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso? This panel will bring together a group of papers exploring exhibition histories that extend beyond the dominant transatlantic traffic between North America and Europe to consider the circulation of American art in a more properly global sphere. As the Terra Foundation for American Art has recently focused its attention on exhibitions in Asia and Australia, this session seeks to sketch a usable past for the global circulation of contemporary American art exhibitions.
Drawing on the perspectives provided by Groseclose and Wierich’s edited volume ‘Internationalizing the History of American Art: Views’ (2009), and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s symposia series ‘American Art in a Global Context’ (2006, 2009 and 2013), this session will seek to bring to light little-known instances of American art’s exhibition on the supposed peripheries of the international art world. Papers can consider exhibition contexts ranging from single works to broad surveys dating from before 1980, including public displays of reproductions. Museum staff whose own institutions were involved in such projects are encouraged to draw on internal archives to resuscitate these histories. The involvement of agencies including the Carnegie Corporation, the Museum of Modern Art’s International Program, the Art in Embassies scheme and other diplomatic and commercial vehicles for exhibitions of American art beyond Europe and the United Kingdom may be considered. Speakers can grapple with the period reception of these exhibitions, the motives of their curators and patrons, and the cultural reverberations left in their wake.
Send proposals to Alex J Taylor alex.taylor@history.ox.ac.uk
Proposals should include: CAA session participation proposal form
Preliminary abstract of one to two double-spaced, typed pages.
Letter explaining speaker’s interest, expertise in the topic, and CAA membership status.
CV with home and office mailing addresses, email address, and phone and fax numbers. Include summer address and telephone number, if applicable.
Notifications will be sent by June 9, 2014.