Call for Papers: Inter-Cultures 1400-1850 – Art, Artists and Migration

Marcus Gheeraerts II, Portrait of Mary Rogers, Lady Harington, 1592

Conference at Liverpool Hope University, 5-6 April 2013; Call for Papers deadline 1 October 2012

Focusing on the time between 1400 and 1850, this multi-disciplinary, international conference seeks to explore the complex implications that the emigration and immigration of artists had on their artistic
development and also upon the society they were leaving and the new one they were joining. While major exhibitions, such as “Migrations” (January – August 2012) at Tate Britain, address the impact of migration on the cultural heritage and artistic production in a particular country, the conference seeks to investigate further this exciting topic by discussing thematically the latest research of international scholars.

Instead of focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries and the strong consequences migration caused in modern and postmodern societies, we intend to look back and explore the effects of migration on art and artists in Europe and beyond before, during and shortly after the Industrial Revolution. Why have artists left their comfort zone, travelled to faraway places and adapted to new living conditions when only very few had a noteworthy impact on local artistic production, such as Hans Holbein the Younger at Henry VIII’s court or El Greco, who is the prime example for intercultural artistic exchange in early modern times? How important was national identity for the artists and also for the reception of their work? What are the differences and parallels between pre- and post-Industrial Revolution migration of artists?

In Translation: Women, Migration and Britishness

Manchester Art Gallery: Saturday 25 February 2012 – Saturday 23 February 2013, free

This exhibition is part of a major project working with women who have migrated to the North-West of England from all over the world. The women, drawn from a range of diverse backgrounds, are working with artists’ collective UHC (Ultimate Holding Company) to co-curate a display featuring and inspired by Manchester City Galleries’ collection of Empire Marketing Board Posters.

These posters were produced by the Empire Marketing Board, a promotional body set up by the British government in 1926. They are large, colourful lithographic prints, which are now regarded as a rare example of peace time government propaganda. Each set of posters promotes a way of thinking about the Empire – for example, as an eager market for British exports, or as a bounteous source of produce for the British tea table. Any darker ideas of ruthless colonial domination were kept at bay by the sheer brilliance of the posters. The poster campaign ran nationwide on Britain’s streets from 1926 to 1933.

Exhibition: Migrations @ Tate Britain

Frank Bowling, Mirror, 1966

Tate Britain, Millbank, London, until 12 August 2012

This exhibition at Tate Britain explores British art through the theme of migration from 1500 to the present day, reflecting the remit of Tate Britain Collection displays. From the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch landscape and still-life painters who came to Britain in search of new patrons, through moments of political and religious unrest, to Britain’s current position within the global landscape, the exhibition reveals how British art has been fundamentally shaped by successive waves of migration. Cutting a swathe through 500 years of history, and tracing not only the movement of artists but also the circulation of visual languages and ideas, this exhibition includes works by artists from Lely, Kneller, Kauffman to Sargent, Epstein, Mondrian, Bomberg, Bowling and the Black Audio Film Collective as well as recent work by contemporary artists.