Modern Art and Architecture Commons^™

Exhibiting Art In A European Periphery? International Art In Sweden During The Cold War, Katarina Wadstein Macleod, Marta Edling, Pella Myrstener

Artl@s Bulletin

The project Exhibiting Art in a European Periphery? International Art in Sweden during the Cold War aimed to investigate international exhibitions in Sweden during the postwar period from circa 1945 to the end of the 1980s. The main objective was to find information beyond preconceived ideas of what is important, interesting, or simply good art. In this article, we present our method for searching through the archives and some of the findings and insights generated.

Art Contre/Against Apartheid At Lunds Konsthall: An Entangled History Of Art And Solidarity From Paris To Pretoria, Katarina Wadstein Macleod

Artl@s Bulletin

This article concerns the international touring exhibition Art contre/against Apartheid originating in France and which reached Lunds konsthall, Sweden in 1984 and was to tour the world for ten years. The aim with this exhibition was to raise awareness of the apartheid regime, cause international protest and ultimately remove the repressive political system. Using histoire croisée as a method this article investigates the different interests and stake-holders in the exhibition at Lunds konsthall, including the critique of the exhibition as resting on white supremacy. The purpose of the article is to locate the different intersections regarding international art, international politics …

L’Accent Sur Le Local : Modernisme Et Régionalisme Dans L’Art Grec De L’Entre-Deux-Guerres, Christina Dimakopoulou

Artl@s Bulletin

In 1919 a group of Greek modernist artists under the name “Groupe Tekhni” was presented to the Parisian public through a collective exhibition aiming at proving the synchronized status and the international scope of Greek contemporary art. Against all the ambitions, the exhibition did not meet the expectations of French critics who were searching vainly in the work of Greek artists for a certain accent local, typical of the region of oriental Mediterranean. This paper investigates the way in which the concept of accent local, proposed by the French critics, was interpreted in the Greek art of the …

Mediterranean Cubisms: Decoration, Classicism, Picasso And Professionalism, David Cottington

Artl@s Bulletin

‘A working countryside is hardly ever a landscape’, Raymond Williams observed fifty years ago in his book The Country and the City; for to perceive it as such is to have both the leisure and the distance from it, to aestheticize it. This essay argues that, similarly, art practices have too often been understood ‘from the outside in’: that in Cubist representations of the Mediterranean, the picturesque quality of the Riviera insinuated itself—indeed that that the influence of the decorative was so far- reaching in the inter- World War years that it co- opted avant-gardism itself, and that the …

L'Invention Artistique De La Méditerranée: Quelques Repères, Rossella Froissart

Artl@s Bulletin

Qu’en est-il de la Méditerranée pour les historiens de l’art ?

Si les relations nord-sud ont été abordées relativement souvent, on a gardé prudemment à distance toute analyse faisant cas d’un prétendu « genius loci » méditerranéen, fondé sur les concepts de « nation », de « peuple » et de « race ». Aujourd’hui les outils pour une lecture dépassionnée des imbrications du fait artistique avec les logiques spatiales ne manquent pas et le dossier peut être rouvert. Il faudra d’abord tenter d’établir à quel moment et sous quelles conditions la notion de « Méditerranée » apparaît dans le …

Beyond Nationalism? Blank Spaces At The Documenta 1955 – The Legacy Of An Exhibition Between Old Europe And New World Order, Mirl Redmann

Artl@s Bulletin

Was the first documenta really beyond nationalism? documenta 1955 has been widely regarded as conciliation for the fascist legacy of the exhibition “Degenerate Art” (1937), and as an attempt to reintegrate Germany into the international arts community. This article employs published and archival sources in order to understand if and how documenta was impacted by the legacy of nationalism in post-fascist Germany. A biographic sketch of Antonio Corpora (1909-2004) shows how the purportedly “universalist” selection criteria employed by documenta erased cultural specificity and solidified nationalist conceptions of center and periphery.

“Other Modernities”: Art, Visual Culture And Patrimony Outside The West. An Introduction, Silvia Naef, Irene Maffi, Wendy Shaw

Artl@s Bulletin

The notion of modernity as a tabula rasa phenomenon that destroys the present in order to build the future is particularly complicated in the case of non-Western settings, where modernization was often understood as erasing local culture in favor of a template borrowed from the West. Historiographies of non-Western arts have mostly followed such a model, viewing fine arts, associated with modernity, as opposed to “traditional” arts, often commodified in the production of nostalgia or marketed for tourists. This article discusses the complexity of art production in non-Western contexts, beyond such reductive classifications.

Cartographier L’Essor D’Un Modèle : Le Chapiteau Ionique De Michel-Ange De L’Invention Au Début Du Xviie Siècle, Federica Vermot

Artl@s Bulletin

This study proposes to map the propagation of an alternative type of ionic capital invented by Michelangelo in 1563. We proceed to a comparative analysis of the new buildings erected in Rome from the invention of the new capital to the beginning of the 17th century, in order to highlight spatial and temporal correlations peculiar to its diffusion. The study of this issue allows to understand the perception of the capital that the next generation of roman architects developed, which is a less known aspect of Michelangelo's reception. Overall, it invites to shape the stylistic evolution of an architectural motif.

Women Artists Shows·Salons·Societies: Towards A Global History Of All-Women Exhibitions, Catherine Dossin, Hanna Alkema

Artl@s Bulletin

The Women Artists Shows·Salons·Societies project was launched in 2017 as a collaboration between Artl@s and AWARE. Combining AWARE’s ambitions to restore the presence of 20th-century women artists in the history of art, and Artl@s’s desire to provide scholars with the data and tools necessary to question the canonical art historical narratives through quantitative and cartographic analyses, we decided to work on group exhibitions of women artists.
Our first ambition is to build a community of scholars and work together to develop a common terminology and even possibly a common and consistent methodology to study these events, because the ones used …

Femmes Artistes Italiennes Du Xxe Siècle : Il Complesso Di Michelangelo, Rome 1977, Laura Iamurri

Artl@s Bulletin

Une exposition historique de femmes artistes s’ouvrit à Rome en février 1977 : installée dans une galerie privée, la première rétrospective consacrée aux artistes italiennes du XX^e siècle avait été organisée à l’occasion de la parution du livre Il complesso di Michelangelo [Le complexe de Michel-Ange], écrit par l’artiste Simona Weller. Cet ouvrage, premier essai de recensement de la présence féminine dans l’art contemporain en Italie, citait 270 artistes tout au long du siècle, la plupart d’entre elles oubliées ou inconnues ; seules les artistes professionnelles étaient prises en considération.

Se Rendre Visible Dans L’Espagne De Franco: Le Salón Femenino De Arte Actual (1962-1971), Maria Lluïsa Faxedas, Isabel Fontbona, Patricia Mayayo

Artl@s Bulletin

The paper examines the history and the critical reception of the Salón femenino del arte actual, an annual all-female exhibition organized by a group of women artists in Barcelona between 1962 and 1971. Unique at the time, the Salón challenged the traditional role attributed to women under Franco's dictatorship, managing at the same time to obtain support from local authorities. The paper argues that it was the ability of the organisers to take advantage of political ambivalence, to find a delicate balance between complicity and resistance, which allowed the exhibition to survive for a decade.

Women's Art Club And Women’S Group Exhibitions In Zagreb From 1928 Until 1940, Darija Alujević, Dunja Nekić

Artl@s Bulletin

In 1927 painters Nasta Rojc and Lina Crnčić Virant, inspired by their British colleagues founded the Women's Art Club in Zagreb. From 1928 until 1940 the Club organized group exhibitions of its members. The main idea of the Club was to improve arts and crafts, to organize female exhibitions and to collaborate with other international women associations. The Club took part in the organisation of the exhibition of Bulgarian women artists and the exhibition of the Little Entente of Women held in 1938 in Zagreb. Women`s Art Club was an important factor of the female artists' emancipation – organizing the …

The Exhibitions Of The Femmes Artistes Modernes (Fam), Paris, 1931-38, Paula J. Birnbaum

Artl@s Bulletin

The Société des Femmes Artistes Modernes (FAM) opened up a productive space for women artists who were active in Paris during the 1930s through annual multigenerational exhibitions and international collaborations. I argue that FAM embodied a paradox: on the one hand, it supported artists wishing to question stereotypes of gender, race, class, and nation; on the other, its institutional structure and leadership did not challenge patriarchal assumptions about women’s subordinate role in society. The paper explores this tension by comparing the work and critical reception of several artists in the group who represented the theme of motherhood.

L'Esposizione Internazionale Femminile Di Belle Arti (Torino, 1910-1911; 1913). Note Su Genere, Arte E Professione In Italia All'inizio Del Xx Secolo, Francesca Lombardi

Artl@s Bulletin

Il contributo intende ricostruire la vicenda delle Esposizioni Internazionali Femminili di Belle Arti (1910-11; 1913), prima manifestazione artistica di taglio internazionale riservata esclusivamente alle donne organizzata in Italia. Promosse a Torino dalla rivista La Donna, le due rassegne si svolsero in un momento storicamente determinante per l'affermazione di un nuovo status delle artiste, contribuendo a dare visibilità e legittimità al fenomeno della produzione artistica femminile. La ricerca ripercorre, sulla scorta soprattutto di documenti d'epoca e fonti d'archivio, la storia e gli esiti di questa innovativa esperienza, evidenziando la complessità delle reti istituzionali, sociali, di patronage e matronage che concorsero …

Disputas Imperiales Por Latinoamérica: Un Ensayo Comparativo En Torno A Dos Proyectos Cartográficos De Alfredo Guido Y Miguel Covarrubias, Fabiana Serviddio

Artl@s Bulletin

En este trabajo propongo ensayar una comparación entre dos proyectos artísticos casi contemporáneos realizados en los albores de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, que problematizaron su pertenencia cultural a relatos regionales preestablecidos. En primer lugar, se abordará el análisis de Carretera Panamericana(1942), obra mural del artista argentino Alfredo Guido; en una segunda instancia, se hará referencia al proyecto de los seis mapas pictóricos realizados por Miguel Covarrubias para la Exposición Internacional Golden Gate de San Francisco, en 1939 (deteniéndome en particular, en Formas artísticas del área del Pacífico yPoblaciones del Pacífico). Las cartografías pictóricas de Alfredo Guido y …

Le Paradigme « Art Africain » : De L’Origine À Sa Physionomie Actuelle, Henri Kalama

Artl@s Bulletin

This study relooks at the problematic concept of "African Art". The conceptual evolution of "African Art" coincides with three realities: firstly, that the art discovered in Africa was described as uncivilized; secondly, that this art capitulated with the colonial past of Africa; finally, that this art of an underdeveloped continent. In such a context of emergence, this art has been or is still exploited by ambitious and interested promoters. Hence, there is an imperative need for contemporary artists to overcome all these influences to produce works whose ontological values and universality cannot be challenged.

Circulations, Resémantisations. Le Palimpseste Aporétique, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel

Artl@s Bulletin

Pourquoi trouve-t-on si peu d’études sur les resémantisations à l’œuvre dans les circulations artistiques ? Pourquoi dispose-t-on encore moins de théorie générale pour comprendre ces resémantisations ? Ce papier, s’interrogeant sur les questions que lève une approche circulatoire de l’histoire de l’art, passe en revue les méthodes et les sources qui peuvent contribuer à y répondre. Qu’est-ce qui porte le sens d’une œuvre d’art ? Comment le sens se constitue-t-il et évolue-t-il selon les temps et les lieux ? Quels sont les facteurs qui le font changer ? Quelles sont les conséquences possibles d’une resémantisation artistique ? Y a-t-il des …

Magie, Terre Et Cri. Les Resémantisations Politiques De L’Œuvre D’Antoni Tàpies Sous Le Franquisme., Claudia Grego

Artl@s Bulletin

Tout au long de sa carrière, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) fut partisan d’un modèle interprétatif qui permit l’appropriation individuelle de ses œuvres. Le peintre fut le défenseur et le bénéficiaire d’un mode de signification du tableau qui n’était ni univoque, ni prédéterminé. Dans cet article, on analysera comment cette ductilité interprétative a permis la resémantisation politique des œuvres de Tàpies pendant l’époque du franquisme (1939-1975). Guidés par une de ses premières créations, Croix de journal (1946 – 1947), nous tracerons les déplacements de ses toiles pour classifier les déclinaisons sémantiques de l’œuvre en trois grandes étapes : d’abord, l’émergence de Tàpies …

The Reception Of Modern European Art In Calcutta: A Complex Negotiation (1910s-1940s), Julia Madeleine Trouilloud

Artl@s Bulletin

This article analyzes the reception of Modern European Art in Calcutta in the early decades of the twentieth century. In the initial years, the knowledge of the European avant-gardes was limited. It then got rejected as a legitimate source of influence by the Bengal School ideologues close to the nationalist movement. In the early 1930s, the painter Jamini Roy paved the way for a new aesthetics which rejected the Bengal School ideological project and turned to folk arts as models. The style he pioneered naturally appealed to the global modern sensibility. The 1940s are marked by a phase of enthusiasm …

« Dégénérés » En France. Tentatives De Définition D'Une Identité Collective Par Les Artistes Germaniques Exilés En France À La Fin Des Années 1930, Hélène Duret

Artl@s Bulletin

Cet article examine les stratégies d'identification mises en œuvre par les artistes allemands et autrichiens exilés en France au moment où les expositions d'art « dégénéré » circulent dans l'Allemagne hitlérienne. Dans un contexte de tensions internationales et d'accueil méfiant des réfugiés allemands en France, certains collectifs d'artistes se définissent tour à tour comme fers de lance de l'« autre Allemagne », d'un héritage français de liberté artistique ou d'une « Internationale » artistique. En revanche, ces artistes ne franchissent pas le pas d'un « retournement du stigmate » (Goffman) vis-à-vis du qualificatif nazi « dégénéré ».

Nothing To Do With Politics, Only Art? On Wassily Kandinsky's Work In Paris, From 1934 Until The Outbreak Of The War, Kate C. Kangaslahti

Artl@s Bulletin

Following his move to Paris at the end of 1933, Wassily Kandinsky clung to his conviction that art must remain free of politics. The purpose of this essay is to consider both the limitations and advantages of this position in the polarized political climate of the French capital and to chart the aesthetic path he embarked on after his arrival, with particular reference to the personal ties and artistic alliances that he forged (or not) in this complex cultural terrain. Far from having nothing to do with politics, the transformation his painting underwent in Paris, the period he dubbed “synthetic,” …

Unwanted By Both The Political Left And Right: Interwar Europe’S Hungarian Migrating Artists, Eva Forgacs

Artl@s Bulletin

A little known group of Hungarian artists who were students at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest in 1927-1930, joined by a few artists from outside the Academy, were modernists, explored the Soviet Russian avant-garde and abstraction, and therefore were rejected by the mainstream, official art in Hungary. However, the strictly principled left-wing Munka (Work) Circle of Lajos Kassák was not hospitable to therm, either. Members of “The Progressives” group left Hungary in 1930. The increasingly classicist Hungarian avant-garde did not tolerate bias; thus the idiosyncratic poet and artist Tamkó-Sirató had to leave Hungary, too and develop his Dimensionism …

From Foix To Dalí: Versions Of Catalan Surrealism Between Barcelona And Paris, Enric Bou

Artl@s Bulletin

The purpose of this article is to illustrate a little known episode of Salvador Dalí’s initial intervention in the surrealist movement: his relationship with Catalan writer Josep Vicenç Foix. To what extent writers such as Foix adapted Surrealism in his own writing and what kind of exchanges he had with Paris? Was Foix a predecessor of Dalí’s surrealist writing? As early as 1918, J.V. Foix made an impact in Catalan literary circles and one of the first imitators of Apollinaire (and maybe Breton). After 1926 Foix he developed a close relationship with Dalí and helped him with the publication of …

Distance And Distortion: Amadeo Souza Cardoso's And Joan Miró'S War-Years Painting And The Words That Fail Them, Joana Cunha Leal

Artl@s Bulletin

This essay considers art historical discourses on the work produced during the First World War by two painters born and living in the Iberian Peninsula: the Portuguese Amadeo de Souza Cardoso (1887–1918) and the Catalan Joan Miró (1893–1983). It considers the dialogues and relations maintained by these painters in their war-affected national artistic milieus and with the equally disrupted, international avant-garde circles, while discussing historiographical biased assumptions about production-places and their meanings, namely how localness was read as expressing isolation, distance, and lack of aesthetic significance.

The Gentleman, The Craftsman And The Activist: Three Figures Of The Sino-Indian Artistic Exchange In Colonial Bengal, Nicolas Nercam

Artl@s Bulletin

This article analyses some aspects of the Chinese-Indian exchanges, which took place in the first half of the 20^th century, in the artistic circle of Calcutta and Shantiniketan, in Bengal. From the beginning of the last century, the Bengali elite was under the influence of Okakura Kakuzo’s Pan-Asian theories, in its approach to Chinese art. From the 20’s, under the auspices of Rabindranath Tagore the first direct contact between Chinese and Indian artistes took place and lasted until the 40’s. From the 30’s, the Bengali avant-garde, in its search of a new aesthetic in relation with social and political …

Śāntiniketan And Modern Southeast Asian Art: From Rabindranath Tagore To Bagyi Aung Soe And Beyond, Yin Ker

Artl@s Bulletin

Through the example of Bagyi Aung Soe, Myanmar’s leader of modern art in the twentieth century, this essay examines the potential of Śāntiniketan’s pentatonic pedagogical program embodying Rabindranath Tagore’s universalist and humanist vision of an autonomous modernity in revitalizing the prevailing unilateral and nation-centric narrative of modern Southeast Asian art. It brings into focus the program’s keystones on the modern, art and the artist, which have been pivotal in discoursing on the Burmese alumnus of the ashram-turned-university, and explores how the same might be applicable to fellow artists in Myanmar and the region.

Past Disquiet: From Research To Exhibition, Kristine Khouri, Rasha Salti

Artl@s Bulletin

An exhibition of an exceptional scale and scope took place in Beirut in the middle of the civil war and today, its archival and documentary traces have been almost entirely lost. The International Art Exhibition for Palestine opened in the Spring of 1978, comprising some 200 works donated by artists hailing from nearly 30 countries, to be a seed collection for a museum in exile. This is a transcript of a presentation of the transformation of research into an exhibition format and a virtual walkthrough of the show Past Disquiet: Narratives and Ghosts from the International Art Exhibition for Palestine, …

Les Transferts De « L’Art Total » De La Suisse Au Brésil : Une Modernisation Très Particulière, Ana Paula Cavalcanti Simioni

Artl@s Bulletin

Cet article considère les projets d’art décoratif réalisés par John et Regina Graz, un couple pionnier dans l’introduction de l’idée d’ « art total » au Brésil (1920-30). On s’intéresse à la façon dont ils transposèrent dans un contexte très différent des modèles et des hiérarchies appris durant leur formation à Genève, selon un processus de réception sélective qui correspondait aux projets d'identité et de distinction de l'élite locale brésilienne. Plus largement, cette étude de la réception des arts décoratifs au Brésil permet de découvrir d'autres modèles artistiques modernistes que ceux venus de Paris, auxquels on résume encore l’histoire de …

Le Triangle Des Circulations Artistiques Transnationales, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Catherine Dossin

Artl@s Bulletin

L'étude des circulations artistiques à l’échelle mondiale est désormais un champ en pleine expansion ; mais celle des circulations transcontinentales reste un domaine plus réduit. De même, alors que les études de transferts artistiques et culturels bilatéraux sont désormais chose courante, il est plus difficile de trouver des études dans lesquelles un système triangulaire est mis en évidence – où la circulation artistique, qu’il s’agisse d’œuvres, d’artistes, d’esthétiques ou de styles, fait intervenir un nombre au moins ternaire de référentiels culturels, et où les effets de transformation, d’adaptation et de réadaptation sont donc particulièrement complexes. Or, avec un peu d’observation, …

Bas Les Masques ! Pour Une Relecture Socio-Économique Du Montparnasse Des Années 1920, Léa Saint-Raymond

Artl@s Bulletin

This paper attempts to reconstruct the Parisian art world of the 1920s through the prism of the social sciences. Geography, sociology and network analysis shed new light on a caricature drawn by Sem, entitled Les Montparnos, which was published in 1929 in L’Illustration. The reconstruction of the artistic field strips away the masks, and leads us to conclude that Sem, the star of the Parisian Belle Epoque, was trying to reverse the stigma of his increasingly marginalized position by mocking a new generation of rising stars—such as Foujita, Man Ray, and Kiki de Montparnasse—who were starting to dominate …