Art Histories, Cultural Studies and the Cold War (London 24 September 2010)

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David Ayers/University of Kent
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Conference: Art Histories, Cultural Studies and the Cold War

Date: 24 September 2010

Venue: Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London

Twenty years ago the world witnessed the most momentous geo-political
changes since the end of the Second World War: the fall of the Berlin Wall
the implosion of Soviet Union and the emergence of the USA as the
global superpower. The period of the Cold War (c.1948-89) was one of
ideological struggle and profound cultural crisis, no less so than for the
discipline of Art History, rooted in the ideals and aspirations of the
European Enlightenment. But the crucible of the Cold War also witnessed
the re-definition of Art History, the birth of the New Left and a nascent
tradition of Cultural Studies.

In 1952 Erwin Panofsky wrote a paper surveying Three Decades of Art History in
the United States – an essay pervaded by an acute sense of how the development
of the discipline of Art History, and the lives of individual art historians, had been shaped by the momentous political events of the 1930s and 40s. In a specific reference to McCarthyism, Panofsky noted how 'nationalism and intolerance' remained a terrifying threat to academic freedom and that 'even when dealing with the remote past, the historian cannot be entirely objective.' Although the situation
was less extreme in the UK, intellectuals and academics with left wing sympathies such as Frederick (Frigyes) Antal, Francis Klingender and Eric Hobsbawm still faced 'red baiting' and other challenges in gaining employment in universities and other teaching-related posts.

Writing in 1960 to Adrian Stokes about his book Art and Illusion, Ernst Gombrich reflected on the 'considerable shock' with which he discovered that Art History had been misused to propagate pseudo-historical myths on both the Right and the Left.
Some decades later Peter Fuller was faced with a changing political landscape and
the need to re-consider his own response to national identity and to the Marxism he had cherished earlier in his career.

This international conference will explore how the Cold War delineated approaches to Art History, Historiography and Cultural Studies and how its conditions and constraints shaped the professional careers and ideas of scholars and cultural theorists.

Conference Fees: £20 [£12 students and unwaged] to include tea, coffee and
evening drinks reception.

For further information on the conference and registration details, please contact: G.F.Pooke@kent.ac.uk or B.D.H.Thomas@kent.ac.uk