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International Conference 28-29 November 2008

Living with the Royal Academy: Artistic Ideals and Experiences in Britain, 1768-1848

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The Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies
and the British Art Research School, Department of History of Art,
University of York

The King’s Manor, York, UK

Convenor: Professor Mark Hallett

In 2001, David Solkin’s edited volume and exhibition Art on the Line: the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House, 1780-1836 offered new and influential approaches to the Academy’s annual exhibitions as events with dynamic implications for artists and their audiences. This conference sets out to extend the lines of enquiry opened up in Art on the Line through a heightened attention to the textures of artists’ relationships with the Royal Academy in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain. In particular, it aims to explore the Academy as a lived organism, one whose most effective role was as a reference point towards, around and against which artists operated in their relationships with each other and with artistic practice itself. Thinking beyond the dichotomy of loyalism and rebellion, and seeking to complicate notions of a monolithic, ossifying institution from which many of the ‘best’ artists of the period - whether Gainsborough, Blake or the Pre-Raphaelites - were ‘liberated’, Living with the Royal Academy seeks to develop a more three-dimensional understanding of the Academy’s engagement with its diverse artistic and critical constituencies. The conference is being organised by John Barrell, Mark Hallett and Sarah Monks of the University of York.

This two-day event will feature an international range of speakers, including John Barrell, John Bonehill, Ann Bermingham, Matthew Craske, Rosie Dias, Jason Edwards, Mark Hallett, Iain McCalman, Sarah Monks, Martin Myrone, Martin Postle and Aris Sarafianos. The conference is being generously supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

PROGRAMME

Friday, November 28th 2008

9.00  Registration and Coffee (Huntingdon Room)

9.30 Welcome: John Barrell (York)
 
SESSION I. CHAIR: Sarah Monks (York)
9.40  Mark Hallett (York), ‘The Academy Quartet: Joshua Reynolds in 1769’

10.30 Coffee (Huntingdon Room)

11.00 Matthew Craske (Oxford Brookes), ‘The Making of the Royal Academy and the Concept of an Imperial Peace’
12.00 Martin Postle (The Paul Mellon Centre), ‘The Sandbys and the Royal Academy’

1.00  Lunch (Huntingdon Room)
 
SESSION II. CHAIR: Mark Hallett (York)
2.00 Sarah Monks (York), ‘‘Un peu gascon’: Dominic Serres, the alien in the Academy’
3.00 John Bonehill (Glasgow), ‘‘The Eye of Delicacy’: Joseph Wright of Derby Reviewed’

4.00  Tea (Huntingdon Room)

4.30 Iain McCalman (Sydney), 'Slipping between two academies: Philippe de Loutherbourg's channel crossing'

6.00 Conference reception, Huntington Room, King’s Manor.
(Speakers dinner at Dean’s Court Hotel, Duncombe Place)

Saturday, November 29th 2008

9.15-9.30  Coffee (Refectory)
 
SESSION III. CHAIR: Michael Rosenthal (Warwick)
9.30  John Barrell (York), ‘Thomas Banks as Radical Activist’

10.30  Coffee (Huntingdon Room)

11.00 Anne Bermingham (U.C, Santa Barbara), ‘Apocalypse at the Academy: The Revelation of Benjamin West’
12.00 Rosie Dias (Warwick), ‘Venetian Secrets and Secret Venetians: Colour and the Royal Academy’

1.00 Lunch (Huntingdon Room)
 
SESSION IV. CHAIR: John Barrell (York)
2.00 Aris Sarafianos (Clark Library), ‘Polite Anatomies for Gentlemen in the Age of Counter-Revolution: Sir  Anthony Carlisle at the Royal Academy’
3.00 Martin Myrone (Tate Britain), "A Child of the Royal Academy": William Etty as Perpetual Student

4.00 Tea (Huntingdon Room)

4.20 Jason Edwards (York), '"By Abstraction Springs Forth Ideal Beauty?": John Gibson's Modernity'
5.20 Closing remarks: Sarah Monks (York)

5.30 Conference closes.