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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Thursday, Oct. 19, and Friday, Oct. 20, the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute hosts a Clark Conference, The Fetish A(r)t Work: African Objects in the Making of European Art History 1500–1900.
The program begins at 9 am in the Clark’s auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center. The program is free and open to the public.
According to a press release:
The conference brings together scholars across the humanities who examine the making and “invention” of African art in European discourse. Convened by scholar and former Clark Professor Anne Lafont (The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences [EHESS], Paris), this conference delves into diverse writings on African objects and interrogates various orientations that transformed these objects, from ritual artifacts and fetishes to works that circulated on the art market and were held in private collections and public museums. The discussion encompasses global art history, natural history, travel literature, ships’ inventories, African geography, comparative religion texts, sales and private collection catalogs, and technical treatises.
Participants include:
Anne Lafont (convener), professor
École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris
Jean-Luc Aka-Evy, philosopher and art historian
Congo-Brazzaville
Alexander Bevilacqua, associate professor of history
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Yaëlle Biro, independent scholar and curator
Paris
Justin Brown, Samuel H. Kress Predoctoral Fellow
Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington, DC
Joshua I. Cohen, associate professor of art history
City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, New York
Roberto Conduru, endowed distinguished professor of art history
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
Cécile Fromont, professor of history of art
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Gabriele Genge, professor
Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor and Chair of English
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Alexandre Girard-Muscagorry, curator
Musée de la Musique (Philharmonie de Paris)
Didier Houénoudé
Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Godomey, Benin
Daniel H. Leonard, assistant professor
College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia
Risham Majeed, associate professor of art, art history, and architecture
Ithaca College, South Hill, New York
Lionel Manga, writer and cultural critic
Douala, Cameroon
Matthew Francis Rarey, associate professor of African and Black Atlantic art history
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
Tags: Clark Art,
