Everyday Objects

Art and Experience in Early Modern Europe
Inaugural Early Modern Symposium

10.00 - 17.20, Saturday, 21 November 2009 (with registration from 09.30)
Research Forum South Room, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

Through a focus on the everyday object, this one-day symposium explores both the experience of visual culture in everyday life and the phenomenon of the everyday in visual culture. Drawing on theories of the everyday from such fields as anthropology, phenomenology and sociology, papers will examine the seemingly banal things that formed the culture of daily life, asking: what constitutes an everyday object? How were everyday objects experienced, represented or collected? And how does their study enhance our understanding of the cultural history of early modernity?

Papers by established and emerging scholars will explore the theme of the everyday object in a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, dress, furniture and the graphic arts. Presentations will investigate ephemeral objects, quotidian spaces and habitual activities – from the social rituals of marriage, food consumption and waste disposal, to overlooked ‘things’ like taxidermy, miniature furniture and clothing accessories. To book a place: £15 (£10 students) Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator, Research Forum, The Courtauld Institute of Art , Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Everyday Objects Conference’. For credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an email to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk

PROGRAMME

09.30 - 10.00

Registration

10.00 – 10.15

Introduction – Edward Payne & Hannah Williams

SESSION 1 – Chair: Edward Payne

10.15 - 10.50

Samuel Bibby (University College London), The Triumph of the Everyday: Sculpture, Marriage, and Memory in Fifteenth-Century Florence

10.50 - 11.25

Joanna Woodall (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Laying the Table. The Procedures of Still-life

11.25 - 11.55

COFFEE/TEA BREAK

SESSION 2 – Chair: Hannah Williams

11.55 - 12.30

Katie Scott (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Cochin’s Handkerchiefs

12.30 - 13.05

Ariane Fennetaux (Université Paris-Diderot), What’s in a Pocket? The Contribution of Material Culture to the Cultural and Social History of 18th-19th Century Britain

13.05 - 14.30

BREAK FOR LUNCH

SESSION 3 – Chair: David Solkin

14.30 - 15.05

Paula Radisich (Whittier College), Theorising ‘Things’ in French Genre Painting of the 1740s

15.05 - 15.40

Melinda Rabb (Brown University), Mimesis Reconsidered: Everyday Objects in Miniature

15.40 - 16.10

COFFEE/TEA BREAK

SESSION 4 – Chair: Sheila McTighe

16.10 - 16.45

Beth Fowkes Tobin (Arizona State University), Women, Decorative Arts, and Taxidermy

16.45 - 17.20

Olivia Fryman (Kingston University and Historic Royal Palaces), ‘Necessary Stooles’ and Necessary Women: Dealing with Royal Dirt, 1660-1714

17.20

RECEPTION

Organised by Edward Payne and Hannah Williams

For more details on the Research Forum’s Writing Art History series, please see http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/projects/writingarthistory/index.shtml