04 May 2009

Artists' Writings, 1850-present

Location: United Kingdom
Conference Date: 2009-06-04
Date Submitted: 2009-04-09
Announcement ID: 168068
Artists' Writings, 1850-present
The Courtauld Institute of Art

Thursday 4 June - Saturday 6 June, 2009
** Student discount available**

Despite Matisse’s warning that ‘he who wants to dedicate himself to painting should start by cutting out his tongue’, artists in the modern period have frequently expressed themselves in writing (whether memoir, fiction or theory). This conference will ask what motivates artists to write, how they view the relation between their visual and textual practice, and how they use writing to manipulate or challenge the public reception and critical interpretation of their work. Challenging the myth of the visual artist as an intuitive anti-intellectual, it will demonstrate the extent and diversity of artists’ contributions to modern literature and criticism in various languages. It will also investigate how scholars interpret these texts: are they works of art in themselves or simply evidence about the artist’s life and craft? Do they conceal as much as they reveal? How has the role and perception of artists’ writings changed over time?

Speaker(s): Bridget Alsdorf (Princeton University), Kenneth Bendiner (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Grace Brockington (University of Bristol), Nicholas Chare (University of Reading), Julie F. Codell (Arizona State University), Peter Cooke (University of Manchester), Ann Compton (University of Glasgow), Julia K. Dabbs (University of Minnesota, Morris), James Faure Walker (artist; Camberwell College of Arts), Richard Hobbs (University of Bristol), John House (Courtauld Institute of Art), Sylvia Karastathi (University of Cambridge), Emma Kimberley (University of Leicester), Yvonne Kyriakides (artist), Michelle Letowska (artist), Anna Lovatt (University of Nottingham), Peter Maber (University of Cambridge), Nina Parish (University of Bath), Dina Ramadan (Columbia University), Christina Rosenberger (Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museum), Deborah Schultz (University of Sussex), Dave Smith (artist), Rachel Sloan (independent art historian), Lisa Tickner (Courtauld Institute of Art), Aurélie Verdier (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Duncan White (Central St Martins)

**Booking now open**
Registration information and event details available online at http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/2008/artistswritings (scroll down the page for Artists' Writings).

Dr Linda Goddard
Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House
Strand
London WC2R 0RN
Email: linda.goddard@courtauld.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/2008/artistswritings