Enfilade

From ArtHist.net:

Thinking with Materials across Histories and Practices

Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design, Prague, 1–2 October 2026

Proposals due by 31 March 2026

The Centre for Doctoral Studies UMPRUM is pleased to announce an international doctoral conference focused on materials and materiality in the methodology of art history. We invite participants to join us in October for a two-day conference at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

Referring to the material, linguistic, or pictorial turn has become a convenient way for art historians to register methodological change. However, such labels risk smoothing over more gradual transformations or historiographical precedents. If we understand the objects of our inquiry as silent messengers (Dupré, 2011), it is their material that underpins their communicative force. In what is ostensibly an object-oriented discipline, one might expect material to be a fundamental point of inquiry. As Ernst Gombrich observed, even the most ordinary object, such as a teacup, opens questions rooted in its substance, physical behaviour, and mode of production (Gombrich, 1988). An object may invite multiple avenues of analysis, yet it is the material itself that first sets these questions in motion.

However, as the material turn itself demonstrates, the interest in material has gradually slipped into the background, overshadowed by approaches that tended to privilege formal or iconographic concerns. If the material turn may be understood as an invitation to re-examine the discipline’s own history (Fricke and Lehmann, 2024), the forthcoming conference seeks to pursue it with more horizontal perspectives and microhistories in mind.

We aim to explore the following thematic areas:

Voices from beyond the Canon

In the historiography of material-oriented art history, figures such as Michael Baxandall and Henri Focillon are frequently invoked, while less canonical voices whose work engaged with materials still await fuller inclusion into this discussion. During the conference, we aim to recover perspectives from diverse linguistic and regional traditions, as well as voices that may have been overlooked or forgotten in existing historiographical frameworks.

Potential avenues of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the following questions:
• How have local art-historical discourses responded to and expanded upon the work of canonical art historians—such as Baxandall—when accounting for material and technical specificities?
• To what extent have art historians historically challenged the long-standing privileging of form over matter (material) in their interpretations of artworks?
• How has the primacy of disegno interno, or the inner idea, shaped the understanding of matter (material) as subordinate in artistic creation?
• How have art historians reflected philosophical conceptions, such as hylozoism, that treat matter as an active agent in creation?
• To what extent did modern vitalist notions of matter—as lively, self-organizing, or possessing formative capacities—shape the emergence of art history and its early approaches to objects?

Rethinking Hierarchies

The recent fascination with materiality has drawn renewed attention to objects made from diverse materials, long relegated to the category of craft, such as glass, ceramics, metalwork, or textiles. Objects historically excluded from canonical art-historical narratives, particularly those grounded in artisanal knowledge, are now becoming central to emerging efforts to rethink the canon.

Possible questions for contributors may include:
• How have art historians specializing in objects relegated to the realm of craft navigated within a scholarly discourse and jargon originally shaped by the highest-ranked genres and media, such as painting or sculptures?
• Practitioners bring processual and materially grounded forms of knowledge that can redirect theoretical questions, yet their expertise often remains marginal in methodological debates. How have practitioners of art and craft—past and present—thought about materials? What insights do they contribute to reenactments and reconstructions, particularly with regard to material intelligence?

Logistics

The conference will be held in person, but online participation is also possible. The main language of the event will be English, and papers should not exceed 20 minutes. PhD students and early career researchers are particularly encouraged to apply. To be considered, please submit a proposal of 200–300 words along with a short bio (up to 150 words) to [email protected] and [email protected] by 31 March 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of April 2026.

Meals for all presenters during the conference will be covered, and we hope to offer travel support, depending on pending funding arrangements. We will update participants when funding is confirmed.

Organizing Committee
David Bláha, Denisa Dolanská, Monika Drlíková, Tomáš Klička, Veronika Králíková Červená, and Veronika Soukupová

From ArtHist.net:

Atlantic Circulations: Architecture and Travels between

the Americas and Europe since the 18th Century

Seville, 4–5 June 2026

Proposals due by 28 February 2026

The inclusion of the Americas within the horizons and intellectual concerns of travelers interested in architecture and the city since the Age of Enlightenment is essential within a series dedicated to the architect’s journey. The Americas, understood as a plural and heterogeneous continental space encompassing North, Central, and South America, were not only the stage for the extension of European itineraries but also the starting point for journeys to Europe by figures of American architectural culture, as well as a substantial part of the beginnings of Atlantic circulations that, since the 18th century, have intensified between both shores of the Atlantic. A few years before the journeys to Greece by Julien-David Le Roy and James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, the naval officer and scientists Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa traveled to the Peruvian Pacific coast and promoted the drawing of “Maps of City and Port Plans,” later published in the account of the voyage (1748), decisively contributing to stimulating European curiosity about South American territories and cities. From the mid-18th century onward, in fact, transatlantic circulations of architectural culture between different regions of the Americas and Europe found in travel a central element.

The role of the journeys through central Italy by the Mexican Jesuit Pedro José Márquez, between 1773 and 1813, for his studies of ancient Mexican architecture, or the Royal Expedition of Mexican Antiquities (1805–08), which included the American horizon within the antiquarian concerns of Spanish cultural circles, are just examples of shared and intersecting interests in architectural culture that found in travel a crucial element on both sides of the Atlantic since the 18th century. Parallel to scientific expeditions that documented American geography, flora, and fauna, the need to better understand territories and cities also motivated transatlantic journeys of profound political significance. Transatlantic travelers contributed to the construction of identities between Europe and the Americas, especially after the dynamics of revolution and independence. Cases such as that of Thomas Jefferson illustrate the complexity of processes involving the circulation of architectural ideas with political, social, and scientific-pedagogical implications.

The processes of colonial and capitalist globalization in the 19th century, together with the rapid technical innovation in communication and transportation, transformed the culture of transatlantic travel throughout the American continents. At the beginning of the 20th century, the shift from transatlantic sea voyages to air travel, leading to the revolution of commercial aviation in the 1950s, shortened distances while transforming the mentality and objectives of the architect’s journey between Europe and Americas. Without these transformations in the material culture of transatlantic travel, the impact of so-called ‘Americanism’ (and its counterpart, ‘anti-Americanism’) on the development of modern architecture would be incomprehensible. For several decades, the journey to o North, Central, and South America constituted a ritual act loaded with symbolic meanings linked to notions of civilization, progress, and modernity. Journeys to Europe by architects from different American contexts complemented circulating ideas with cultural values tied to history and tradition, but also to artistic avant-gardes, innovative pedagogical models, and new technologies. The transoceanic journeys of architects wove a dense network of relationships and meanings that persist to this day. If changing means of transportation conditioned the culture of transatlantic travel, successive generations of architects developed their own motivations, themes, and destinations, adding new content to its symbolic weight.

This international congress aims to investigate the role of architects’ journeys in the evolution of architectural culture between the Americas and Europe from the mid-18th century to the present day. The congress will focus on different types of journeys, traveler profiles, and territories across the American continents, from North to Central and South America, that have contributed to the Atlantic circulations of architectural culture in the Americas, from the twilight of the Enlightenment, the processes of identity construction following independence phenomena starting with the United States and later the Ibero-American nations, journeys in search of identity within Pan-American architecture up to the European wars, America and Europe in early modernity, or the role of travel in the circulation and networks of architectural culture during the second half of the 20th century. The congress will address both journeys through Europe by architects from the Americas, and journeys through the different American regions by Europeans, with special interest in transatlantic circulations and the back-and-forth exchanges of architectural culture on both sides of the ocean, emphasizing both the interpretation of architecture in the places visited and the repercussions of these journeys for the travelers’ own architectural culture, as well as for the construction of transoceanic ties, including those of a conflictive nature. The congress will gather a limited number of contributions, representing original studies on specific cases or themes to be debated at the meeting in order to reflect on the role of architects’ journeys in the evolution of architectural culture between the Americas and Europe from the mid-18th century to the present day.

This will be the seventh conference of the series, The Architect’s Journeys: Circuits and Cultural Transfers across the Mediterranean and Beyond, 18th–20th Centuries (2023–27), which aims to deconstruct any univocal interpretation of the idea of travel and to highlight the multiplicity of its methods and interpretations, as well as the material and immaterial transfers produced through the connections established with history, human geography, contexts—in the broadest sense of the term—and the places visited. During the period from the 18th to the 20th century, architects’ journeys in the Mediterranean and beyond must be read and repositioned within the broader context of the problem of confronting otherness and the very way in which the notion of identity of places is defined through their perceptions and representations from the outside.

These six congresses have already taken place:
1  Du voyage de formation au voyage professionnel en France et en Europe (París, Académie d’Architecture e all’Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-La Villette, 1–3 June 2023).
2  I viaggi dell’architetto, La scoperta della natura e l’invenzione del paesaggio: Percezione, analisi e interpretazione dei territori oltre l’architettura, 1750–1989 (Nápoles, Palazzo Donn’Anna, 12–14 October 2023).
3  Los arquitectos y el viaje a Oriente, mediados del siglo XVIII–años 1960 (Granada, Palacio de Carlos V, la Alhambra, 23–24 May 2024).
4  Travelling in Search of the Middle Ages in Italy and Europe (Pavía-Turín, università Di Pavia-Politecnico di Torino, 11–13 November 2024).
5  L’exil comme voyage: La Méditerranée des architectes et le monde, XVIIIe–XXe siècle (Poitiers, Università de Poitiers, 3–4 April 2025).
6  Architects and Engineers: Journeys in the Polytechnic Culture Networks, Media, and New Destinations since 1794 (Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe Institute für Tecnologie, 6–8 November 2025).

The contributions of each congress will be published as part of a collection by Campisano Editori (Rome). The series I viaggi dell’architetto has already published the proceedings of the second congress La scoperta della natura e l’invenzione del paesaggio: Percezione, analisi e interpretazione oltre l’architettura, 1750–1989, edited by Gemma Belli, Fabio Mangone, and Rosa Sessa.

To propose a presentation for the June 2026 congress, please submit an abstract (maximum 2500 characters, including spaces) along with a brief author biography (maximum 500 characters, including spaces), two representative images, and a reference bibliography to [email protected] before 2pm on 28 February 2026. The scientific committee will select a maximum of 20 papers. Selected proposals will be invited to participate in the edited volume derived from the congress.

The conference languages are Spanish, French, Italian, and English. The congress will be held in-person, with the opportunity for online presentations by researchers affiliated with American universities. There is no fee to participate.

Scientific Coordination
Joaquín Medina Warmburg, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Carlos Plaza, University of Seville

Organizing Commitee
Marta Parra, University of Seville
Teresa Rodríguez Miró, University of Seville
Marco Silvestri, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie

Organizing Institution
Universidad de Sevilla

Collaborating Institutions
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Sevilla
Instituto Universitario de Arquitectura y Ciencias de la Construcción
Grupo de Investigación Ciudad, Arquitectura y Patrimonio Contemporáneos
Asociación de historiadores de la Arquitectura y el Urbanismo (AhAU)

Scientific Coordination of the Series
Antonio Brucculeri, AHTTEP, ENSA Paris-La Villette HESAM Université (FR)
Massimiliano Savorra, Università di Pavia (IT)

Scientific Committee of the Series
Paola Barbera, Università di Catania (IT)
Antonio Brucculeri, AHTTEP, ENSA Paris-La Villette HESAM Université (FR)
Juan Calatrava, Universidad de Granada (ES)
Vassilis Colonas, University of Thessaly (GR)
Cristina Cuneo, Politecnico di Torino (IT)
Marie Gaimard, ATE, ENSA de Normandie (FR)
Marilena Kourniati, AHTTEP, ENSA Paris-La Villette HESAM Université (FR)
Fabio Mangone, Università di Napoli Federico II (IT)
Caroline Maniaque, ATE, ENSA de Normandie (FR)
Joaquín Medina Warmburg, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (D)
Nabila Oulebsir, Université de Poitiers (FR)
Sergio Pace, Politecnico di Torino (IT)
Carlos Plaza, Universidad de Sevilla (ES)
Massimiliano Savorra, Università di Pavia (IT)

From the posting at ArtHist.net, which includes the French Appel à communication:

Crafting Everyday Life: Art Manufactories in the 17th and 18th Centuries

La fabrique du quotidien: Les manufactures d’art aux XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles

Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / INHA, 11–12 June 2026

Proposals due by 26 March 2026

Following the merger of the Cité de la Céramique – Sèvres & Limoges and the Mobilier national under the title Manufactures nationales – Mobilier national & Sèvres on 1 January 2025, the Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l’Art Moderne (GRHAM) has chosen to dedicate its annual symposium to the art manufactories of the 17th and 18th centuries. This institutional reorganization serves as an invitation to re-examine the history of manufactories—not as a static ‘golden age’, but as a fluid history marked by internal ruptures and the constant redefining of the links between the State, artists, and workers.

While a segment of historiography has focused on the role of Jean Baptiste Colbert in the development of manufactories from the 1660s (Minard, 1998), the concept of the ‘manufactory’—plural and evolving—must be understood in its broadest sense. It cannot be reduced to Colbert alone, nor even to royal initiatives such as Louis XIII’s creation of the Savonnerie tapestry manufactory in 1628. From the early 17th century, the term ‘manufactory’ referred simultaneously to a site gathering specialized workers, an economic structure, and a production space (Bély, 1996). Some, like the Gobelins, Saint-Gobain, or Sèvres, were established or controlled by the State ; others simply benefited from privileges. Although the 1790s marked a major break in the organization of corporate labor (the Le Chapelier Law and the Allarde Decree, 1791) as well as in the relationship with the academies (1793), manufacturing activity continued and adapted to the new powers in place. On a European scale, terms such as Manufaktur, fabbrica, or fábrica reflect a diversity of models, practices, and organizations that invite a comparative approach, oscillating between craftsmanship, proto-industry, and political stakes. One of the major objectives of this symposium lies in the comparative, non-hierarchical study of different manufactories across France and Europe. It will jointly examine works, motifs, and labor systems, starting from the material and technical conditions of fabrication as well as the modes of collaboration between artists and artisans within the European sphere.

Understanding the 17th- and 18th-century manufactory means studying the links—sometimes harmonious, sometimes conflicting—between mechanical arts and liberal arts, between art and craft, and between the figure of the artist and that of the worker. From Furetière’s Dictionnaire (1690) to the Encyclopédie méthodique (1784), the manufactory appears inseparable from manual labor and the fabrication of utilitarian objects, some of which constitute true works of art. This symposium will specifically explore the shifts between the ‘art object’ and the ‘object of use’. Furthermore, a distinction between different production actors emerged within these establishments. This deepened starting in the Grand Siècle, notably with the rise of academies (Michel, 2012; Guilois, 2018; Guichard, 2002-2003), which institutionalized the separation between the artisan (the possessor of mechanical savoir-faire) and the artist (valued for intellectual creativity and membership in the liberal arts). This hierarchy of status sheds new light on the organization of manufacturing labor and the underlying social, artistic, and economic stakes.

Recent research and exhibitions has shown the extent to which manufactories were sites of collaborative creation. Whether in tapestry—Mortlake, Gobelins, Beauvais—or ceramics—Sèvres, Meissen, Chantilly, or Doccia—monographic studies have demonstrated how artists nurtured, guided, or transformed manufacturing practices. Works dedicated to Le Brun, Coypel, De Troy, or Oudry, along with exhibitions such as Poussin et Moïse (Mobilier national 2011), La fabrique de l’extravagance (Chantilly, 2021), or L’Amour en scène! (Tours, 2022), have highlighted how artists participated in inventing models, adapting to technical constraints, and constructing aesthetics specific to each establishment. By moving beyond the monographic framework to question the modalities of collaboration—continuities, adjustments, discordances, reappropriations, copies—this symposium will illuminate how a ‘multi-handed’ work is forged and better define the role of manufactories in the circulation of styles, models, and expertise in the early modern period.

In this perspective, the study of manufactories can no longer ignore an approach expanded to include savoir-faire, materials, and technical innovations. Manufactories were sites of experimentation where new pastes, enamels, and improvements in weaving or dyeing were developed at the intersection of empirical skill and scholarly knowledge. The ‘material turn’ (Roche, 1997 ; Guichard, 2015 ; Nègre, 2016) has brought art history closer to the history of technology and economics, revealing the importance of transfers: the migration of specialized workers, exchanges between the provinces and the capital, and European—or even global—circulations, as shown by research on indiennes and printed cottons. Following the of Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Fabien Simon, or Marie Thébaud-Sorger (2018), techniques are no longer viewed as simple ‘applied sciences’, but as knowledge in their own right. The concept of ‘open technique’ (Foray & Hilaire-Pérez, 2006) invites us to consider manufactories as network hubs where workshop practices, State policies, and market dynamics intersect. This symposium will study the nature of these transmissions: imitation, adaptation, innovation, or appropriation.

The question of the motif constitutes another fundamental field of exploration. Studying the ‘journey’ of motifs—from their invention to their technical adaptation—allows us to address the close relationship between the creative and productive processes and to measure the popularity of forms across different materials and establishments. Toiles de Jouy have revealed the crucial role of designers like Lagrenée or Huet; recent research on textile design (Gril-Mariotte, 2023) recalls the long tradition of collaboration between academic artists and manufacturing workshops. The study of the diffusion of models—from the importation of a ‘French taste’ at Meissen to the mutual adaptations between Sèvres and Wedgwood, or the role of intermediaries like Nicodemus Tessin the Younger—invites us to question the existence of motifs specific to certain types of production, as well as the methods of their displacement or transformation. This symposium proposes to examine how motifs travel and reinvent themselves across materials and workshops, and to evaluate whether artists working for multiple manufactories adapted their methods or transported the same formal vocabulary from one medium to another.

Finally, the sociological approach to royal manufactories reveals a structured professional environment that varied greatly by institution. Far from the traditional guild system (Bonnet 2015 & 2017), royal manufactories formed centralized, hierarchical production spaces where workers, artists, and administrative staff worked under a director appointed by the Crown. Research by Isabelle Gensollen highlights this organization : the decisive role of the director-general, the strict control of finances, and the political role of manufactories as instruments of monarchical prestige. Simultaneously, other studies—from Maës to Coural—sketch the internal social realities, from life within the Gobelins enclosure to the mobility of entire families, revealing logics of networks, lineages, and technical specialization. Together, these works describe a complex sociology where the manufactory appears not only as a site of production but also as a living environment and a political tool. Using a comparative logic, this symposium aims to take stock of the various manufacturing modalities in France and Europe from the early 17th century to the Revolutionary period.

Proposals for papers should focus on the following three axes:

Axis 1 | Living the Manufactory: Organizations, Crafts, and Economies

This first axis proposes to explore life within the manufactories, with an emphasis on social, economic, and organizational dimensions. The objective is to analyze the diversity of crafts and the division of labor, the training of workers and apprentices, as well as the interactions between artists and artisans—which were often hierarchical yet always interdependent. By studying administrations and economic models—whether royal, privileged, or private manufactories—we can better understand the roles of the State and directors in structuring production, circulating models, and bringing objects to market.

Axis 2 | Making, Copying, Translating: Creative Processes in the Manufactory

This second axis focuses on the production practices and expertise developed within the manufactories. It proposes to study technical gestures, the materials employed, and the innovations implemented to meet both artistic demands and material constraints. Themes such as motifs—their reproduction, adaptation, or translation from one medium to another—as well as multiple production and copying, allow for a deeper grasp of the interactions between creation and fabrication. Intermediality—the transition from a drawing to a tapestry, a print to a textile, or a model to porcelain—opens a rich field of investigation into the internal circulation of forms and shared invention. Contributions may also question how technical experimentation and the manipulation of materials contribute to the construction of specific manufacturing aesthetics. Finally, the question of rights over motifs and inventions opens a reflection on intellectual property and the recognition of creators within these collective workspaces.

Axis 3 | Manufactories in Networks: Mobility, Partnerships, and Inspirations

This final axis explores the interactions between manufactories and the ways in which actors—artists, artisans, and intermediaries such as merchants—shape the production and dissemination of forms and savoir-faire. The aim is to analyze the horizontal and vertical mobility of artists and artisans, whether within a single manufactory or between different workshops, as well as the role of merchants in creating, adapting, and transmitting models. Contributions may examine how these interactions structure manufacturing practices, influence stylistic and technical choices, and participate in the emergence of artistic and productive networks on both a national and European scale. The modalities of joint commercialization by manufactories and merchants will also be analyzed.

Proposals may address one or more of these themes, as the axes are intended to be indicative rather than restrictive.

The symposium will focus on art and armament manufactories, as well as specific textiles (indiennes, toile de Jouy), in France and across Europe. Priority will be given to approaches focusing on production, practices, and the relationships between artists and artisans, as well as the translation from one medium to another.

Consequently, non-artistic industries—such as tobacco manufactories or other strictly utilitarian productions like broadcloth (draps)—are excluded. Likewise, the mere study of exchanges between Paris and the provinces, or between France and abroad, which has been extensively covered by traditional historiography, is not the primary focus of this meeting.

The emphasis will be placed on the internal dynamics of the manufactories: the horizontal and vertical mobility of artists and artisans, the technical and iconographical transfers between materials and media, and the role of merchants in the creation and dissemination of forms. The objective is to move beyond classical institutional approaches to offer a ‘bottom-up’ reading of manufacturing practices, while facilitating comparisons between different national and European traditions, and between royal and private manufactories.

Proposals for papers—whether individual or collaborative—may be submitted in either French or English. They should be approximately 300 words in length and may take the form of general overviews or specific case studies. Applicants are also requested to attach a curriculum vitae.
• Submission deadline: 29 March 2026
• Submission and contact email: [email protected]

A selective bibliography is available here»

Annual Symposium of the Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l’Art Moderne

The GRHAM (Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l’Art Moderne) is an association of earlycareer researchers specializing in 17th- and 18th-century art history. Its mission is to bring together the various actors within the discipline, whether or not they are members of the academic community. The GRHAM contributes to the field’s influence by covering the latest research developments (scientific meetings, publications, exhibitions, etc.) and by hosting monthly lectures, an annual symposium, and occasional visits.

Organizing Committee
Élisa Bérard (PhD candidate, Sorbonne Université), Maxime Bray (PhD candidate, Sorbonne Université), Justine Cardoletti (PhD candidate, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Romane de Chastellux (PhD candidate, Sorbonne Université), Défendin Détard (PhD candidate, Sorbonne Université), Maxime-Georges Métraux (expert, Galerie H. Duchemin), Maël Tauziède-Espariat (Associate Professor, Université Paris-Nanterre), all members of the Board of the Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l’Art Moderne (GRHAM).