Art and War: New Perspectives
The Frick Collection, New York
16 September, 2016
The Frick Collection is pleased to invite submissions for Art and War, a symposium that will accompany the special exhibition Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France. On view from July 12 to October 2, 2016, the exhibition presents a selection of Jean-Antoine Watteau’s little-known drawings and paintings of military life. In these works, Watteau eschews martial glory in favor of depicting more mundane aspects of life on the front: fatigue, boredom, simple diversions. Prompted by Watteau’s singular vision of war, The Frick Collection solicits 25-minute papers that consider the relationship between art and war in ways both direct and oblique, across all media, geographic regions, and time periods. We welcome a range of approaches that engage critically with the historical and theoretical problems posed by the relationship between art and war.
Questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to:
- What representational pressures and aesthetic challenges has war created?
- Where have artists located themselves in, away from, or after ‘the fight’?
- How can art convey the experience of war—not only the violence of battle, but also its impact on everyday life?
- How has art glorified, condemned, or otherwise commented on war?
What can we learn from examining this relationship in an age of perpetual war?
Please send a 250-word abstract and CV by Thursday, June 16, 2016, to Caitlin Henningsen (henningsen@frick.org) and Aaron Wile (wile@frick.org). Proposals from emerging scholars are particularly encouraged.
