THE ART ACADEMY OUTSIDE EUROPE A CLARK SYMPOSIUM SEPTEMBER 13–14, 2019
PROGRAM The nineteenth and early twentieth century witnessed the establishment of fine arts academies around the world. For the most part, these academies were modeled upon the French example and were part of a nexus of institutions and practices, including national museums and annual state-sponsored exhibitions, that domesticated the idea of art as it had developed in early modern Europe. As the fine arts academy was institutionalized in the nonwestern world, however, it encountered tensions and local contingencies that conditioned the ways in which the fine arts were conceptualized and practiced in those regions—often in extremely unexpected ways. Academies’ relationship to the state varied as their pedagogies altered, their hierarchies were inverted, and in some cases the artistic practices they were meant to introduce were transformed altogether. This is especially the case in Latin America, as demonstrated by examples ranging from Brazil to Chile, Cuba to Mexico. In Brazil, for example, the Academy of Rio de Janeiro subverted the traditional hierarchy of painting subjects that privileged history painting, and instead prioritized landscape as the subject most closely associated with state identity. Revealing examples can also be found in other regions of the world. The Tokyo Art School (Bijutsu Gakkō) established in 1889, was the first art academy not to include oil painting in its curriculum, teaching instead a form of neotraditional Japanese painting usually referred to as Nihonga. This symposium proposes a collective and comparative study of the art academy in the non-western world as a way of defamiliarizing art and its associated practices in a global context. In order to carry out such an endeavor, we have convened a group of scholars who study art institutions in different cultures and historical eras to add specificity and a meaningful grounding to the many discourses on world art that have proliferated over the past two decades.
Thursday, September 12 6:00 PM
WELCOME COCKTAIL THE ORCHARDS HOTEL
Please join us for drinks and light fare at the Orchards Hotel, where participants will be staying (222 Adams Road, 413-458-9611). Participants will be on their own for dinner. The restaurant at the hotel will be open and there are a few casual dining options nearby. Suggestions include: Hot Tomatoes (pizza with outdoor seating and bar), a 15-minute walk: http://hottomatoespizza.com/ Spice Root (Indian food) and Blue Mango (Thai & Sushi): https://www.spiceroot.com/menus.htm; http://bluemangothai.com/. They are next door to one another on Spring Street (a 20-minute walk).