Call for papers--College Art Association

We are soliciting papers for an AIC-sponsored session to be held at
the 2006 annual meeting of the College Art Association.

"Cubism approaching one hundred: material questions"
Friday February 24, 2006

This session will address material questions as they concern
history, theory and interpretation, presentation and conservation of
cubist work in all media. While historical study of cubism continues
to expand, technical studies are few. As this body of work is
showing the effects of age and prior handling, how does that effect
scholarship? How does the material evidence affect studies that are
based on photographic reproductions rather than knowledge of the
originals? We welcome papers that examine the artists' choices of
materials and techniques and the implications of age and treatments
on cubist scholarship and on the works' presentation.

In 1983 John Richardson criticized the varnishing of cubist
paintings in a polemical article titled "Crimes Against the
Cubists." He further suggested that the increased availability of
art books with shiny illustrations had predisposed readers to expect
the paintings to be similarly shiny. While conservators and some
curators are sensitive to the question of matte surfaces, does it
have currency for the many scholars that study the work from slides
and reproductions?

The technique of collage is crucial to the study of cubism, yet the
varying materials are certain to age differently. In the case of
newsprint, the highly acidic paper changes color rapidly and poses a
danger to surrounding materials. In the case of Picasso's "Guitar",
of 1912, MoMA has exhibited it with replacements parts (duly
labeled). What are the options for care and interpretation of such
works?

We encourage proposals from a mix of conservators, curators,
academic art historians and artists including senior scholars. The
session is being organized to coincide with a loan exhibition at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "Facers of Cubism. In Honor of Irving
and In Memory of Dolly Rabb" (December 14, 2005- April 16, 2006) and
will be held at the MFA. The AIC's fifth annual gallery-based
workshop will be held in the exhibition galleries and will precede
the session.

Please send short (no more than one page) initial proposals, by
April 30, 2005, to

    Rebecca Rushfield
    wittert<-a t->juno< . >com

or
    Andrea Kirsh
    akirsh<-a t->darkwing< . >uoregon< . >edu)


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