Re-thinking Modernity—Global Art History Conference will be held at CAFA

TEXT:CAFA ART INFO    DATE: 2019.10.29

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Modernity, as one of the most important concepts in contemporary arts, has always taken on various faces in the discussion of art and philosophy, society and history. From the second half of the 19th century to the end of the Second World War, modernism emerged as a whole social and cultural movement and became an important starting point for shaping global art and culture today. If the cultural and aesthetic issues represented by modernism represent the disillusionment of a Euro-American centered utopian dream, it is now a motif of nostalgia.  Modernity has been continuously rewritten and rethought, and every new discussion of modernism and modernity responses to the current socio-political issues and enriched our understanding of contemporaneity.

When Western-centered modernism spread out the world with cultural dynamism, a complex combination of modernization and anti-modernization movements emerged worldwide.  Advancements of Western industrialized civilization, symbolized by achievements in modern science and technology, have accelerated the historical process of globalization at an immeasurable rate and reshaped it. As a result, modernity has undergone a profound reorganization due to global political, economic and cultural changes. The discussion on modernity is about redefining the modernity of various artistic phenomena within their modernization processes in different places around the world from the 19th to 20th century. In the process of redefining modernity, the issues of “Pre-modernity”, “Alterative-modernity”, “Multiple-modernity”, and “Parallel-modernity” etc. have been raised. Therefore, the question facing modernity is how to re-examine the arts and cultural creativity on the margin place of Western centered modernization and globalization. It does not only involve exploring conditions of production in colonial society, as well as examining the historical process of another modernity, but it also involves investigating the more detailed conflicts and interactions among various cultures. Under the challenge of globalization in the post-colonial era, the historical contexts of modernity and post-modernity need to be revisited and analyzed.

The anxiety about modernity in contemporary society has continued since the time of Charles Pierre Baudelaire. This anxiety is further exacerbated by scientific and technological progress featuring biological technology and digital transformation. In the era of globalization, what role has modernity played in the development of contemporary art? Is modernity originated from the West still dominant? Or has there been a variety of modernity, or alternative kinds of modernity? Does Chinese culture have its own modernity? What is the relationship between modernity and traditional culture? These questions are of great significance to the writing of art history in the view of globalization and the formation of an independent study from Chinese perspectives.

About the conference

Academic Chair:

Shao Yiyang (China Central Academy of Fine Arts)

James Elkins (Art Institute of Chicago)

David J. Roxburgh (Harvard University)

Éric de Chassey ( Institut National D’Histoire De L’Art)

Time: 31st October-1st November, 2019

Venue: Academic Hall, Art Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts

Organizer: School of Humanities, CAFA

Co-organizer: Art Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts

Media Support: CAFA ART INFO


Agenda of conference

2019.10.31  Thursday

9:00-20:00

 

Academic hall, Art Museum of Central Academy of

Fine Arts

 Opening
9:00

9:20

 

FAN Di’an,

President, Central

Academy of Fine

Arts


9:20

9:50

 

James Elkins,

Professor of School of the Art Institute

of Chicago

 

Five Current

Strategies for

Writing about

Modernism

Group One

 

Chair: LaoZhu

9:50

10:10

 

LI Jun, Professor,

Dean of School of

Humanities, CAFA

 

Pictures of Tilling 

and Weaving and the World

10:10

10:30

PENG Feng,

Professor & Dean,

School of Arts,

Peking University

 

Modernism in China: Too Early and Too Late

10:30

10:50

 

SHAO Yiyang,

Professor, Deputy-

Dean of School of

Humanities, CAFA

 

Metapictures &

Metamodernity

10:50—11:00

 

Coffee Break

 Group Two

 

Chair: PENG Feng

11:00

11:20

 

Sarah E. Fraser,

Professor, Institute of East Asian Art

History, Center for

Asian and

Transcultural

Studies, Heidelberg Uniersity

 

Modernity, Politics, and Archaeology:

Chinese, Russian,

and German early

20th c. Expeditions in Central Asia

11:20

11:40

 

LaoZhu, Professor of Peking University President of

Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art

 

The Fifth

Revolution of

Modern Art——

Chinese

Contemporary Art after Joseph Beuys/

Andy Warhol

11:40

12:00

 

WANG Jiajun,

Associate Editor,

Theoretical Studies 

In Literature and Art  East China Normal University

 

Icon and Modernity: An Aesthetic

Interpretation of

Jean-Luc Marion’s

thought of Icon

12:00

12:20

 

ZHANG Peng,

Professor, Director of ART RESEARCH, CAFA

 

The Spirit of

Flourishing Dynasty is the Source of

Chinese Art

Modernity — On Xu Beihong’s Another

Thought About

Chinese Painting

12:20—14:00

Lunch Time

Group Three

 

Chair: GAO Minglu

14:00

14:20

 

WANG Min ‘an,

Professor, School of Humanities,

Tsinghua University

 

Modernity and

Nature

14:20

14:40

 

YU Runsheng,

Associate Professor, School of

Humanities, CAFA

 

From Bryullov to

Ivanov: the End of History Painting and a New Art History

14:40

15:00

 

WU Xueshan,

Professor, School of Humanities, CAFA

 

Chains and Veins:

Railway as

Propaganda during

the Sino-Japanese War,1931-1945

15:00

15:20

 

YANG Zhenyu,

Professor, Dean of

The Advanced

School of Art and

Humanities,China Academy of Art

 

From “West

Learning” to “

Modern New

Learning”: Liang

Qichao and  The

Intellectual

Approaches to Art History

15:20—15:30

Coffee Break

Group Four

Chair: WANG Min ‘an

15:30

15:50

 

Sophia Prinz,

Professor,

Universität der

Künste Berlin

 

The Practice of

Entanglement

16:50

16:10

 

CHANG Peijie,

Lecturer of School

of Liberal Arts,

Renmin University of China

 

The Disappearance of Aura and the

Generation of

Dialectical Images:A Discussion

Based on Walter

Benjamin’s Concept of “Technology”

16:10

16:30

 

WEN Tao,

Associate Professor of School of

Humanities, CAFA

 

Outside Modernity: LeiShu(类书) and

Knowledge Form of Ancient China

16:30

16:50

 

GAO Minglu,

Professor,

Department of

History of Art and

Architecture,

University of

Pittsburgh

 

The Roots of

Modernity

16:50

17:20

 

Roundtable Discussion

Chair: James Elkins

Commentater: Sarah E. Fraser

18:00—20:00

Keynote Lecture

Speaker: James Elkins, Professor of School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Lecture Topic: Thinking about Different

Modernisms

Venue: Auditorium of Northern District, CAFA

2019.11.1  Friday

9:00-17:30

Academic hall, Art Museum of Central Academy of

Fine Arts

Group Five

Chair: ZHANG Jian

9:00

9:20

 

David J. Roxburgh,

Professor of Dept.

History of Art and

Architecture, Harvard University. President

for the National

Committee on the

History of Art (United States)

 

A Proliferation of Duplicates: New Technologies of

the Image in 19th-Century Iran

9:20

9:40

 

ZHANG Gan,

Professor of

Department of Art

History,Academy of Arts & Design,

Director of Institute

of contemporary art,

Tsinghua University

 

Rediscover of

Modernism

9:40

10:00

 

ZHAO Yan, Assistant

Researcher of ART

RESEARCH, CAFA;

Editor of World Art

 

Intrinsic

Nonidentity:

Rethinking the

Surrealist Art Theory and

Modernity

10:00

10:20

 

Éric de Chassey,

Professor, Director

General of Institut

National D’Histoire

De L’Art

 

French Abstract

Expressionism

10:20—10:30

Coffee Break

Group Six

Chair: ZHANG Gan

10:30

10:50

 

Timotheus Vermeulen Associate Professor, Department of

Media and

Communication,

University of Oslo

 

Metamodernism

in Three Case

Studies

10:50

11:10

 

ZHANG Chen,

Lecturer of School of Humanities,Central

Academy of Fine Arts

 

Echo of Narcissus:Caravaggio,Meta-painting

and Modernity

11:10

11:30

 

ZHANG Jian,

Professor, Librarian

Director, The

Advanced School of

Art and Humanities,

China Academy of Art

 

The Problem of

Style: From

Diachronic to

Synchronic——

Some Remarks

on the Debate

about Stylistic

Histry in the

Middle and Late 20th Century

11:30

12:00

 

Roundtable Discussion

Chair: David J. Roxburgh

Commentater: Éric de Chassey

12:00—14:00

Lunch Time

14:00-15:30

Keynote Lecture

Speaker:Éric de Chassey, Professor, Director

General of Institut National D’Histoire De L’Art

Lecture Topic:The Death of Painting

Venue:  Academic hall, Art Museum of Central

Academy of Fine Arts

15:30—16:00

Coffee Break

16:00-17:30

Keynote Lecture

Speaker:Timotheus Vermeulen, Associate

Professor, Department of Media and

Communication, University of Oslo

Lecture Topic:10 theses on metamodernism

Venue:  Academic hall, Art Museum of Central

Academy of Fine Arts

2019.11.2  Saturday

18:00-19:30

Keynote Lecture

Speaker:David J. Roxburgh,Professor of Dept.

History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. President for the National Committee on the History of Art (United States)

Lecture Topic:The Timurid-Ming Embassy of 1419-22

Venue: Lecture Hall, Building 7(First Floor)

Courtesy of the Organizer.