CFP: Utopias of Abstract Art

University of Helsinki, August 29 - 31, 2014
Deadline: Jan 30, 2014

Call for Papers

Utopias of Abstract Art

University of Helsinki, open panel at the Fourth Biennial Conference of the European Network for Avant-garde and Modernism Studies (www.eam2014.com)

The early pioneers of abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky, František Kupka, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian, shared the belief that art should not serve the reproduction of visible reality but be an expression of the absolute.  Fascinated by esoteric ideas, occultism, and theosophy, they viewed art, and, in particular, the abstract approach, as a medium to advance human creative evolution and lead the way into a new age of spiritual renewal.  The interwar period saw a secularization of the spiritual concerns of early abstraction; artists turned to science and technology and the ideals of modern industrial production.  This panel will examine the utopian ideals that were closely intertwined with the production of abstract art, whose proponents derived their inspiration from metaphysics, the natural sciences, and modern technology and equated spiritual and technological advancement with social progress.  The focus will not be so much on Constructivism but rather the ideas and theories, including anarchism, evolution, and Lebensreform, which shaped the artists’ worldviews and their artistic production.

Chair: Isabel Wünsche, Professor of Art and Art History, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany
([email protected])

All the submissions will be done through online abstract submission form  
http://www.eam2014.com/index.php?id=abstracts


--
Prof. Dr. Isabel Wünsche

Professor of Art and Art History
School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Director
Humanities Research Center

Jacobs University
Campus Ring 1, Research IV
28759 Bremen
Germany

Tel. 49-421-200-3311
Fax: 49-421-200-49-3311
E-Mail: [email protected]
http://www.jacobs-university.de/shss/iwuensche

Commercial registry: Amtsgericht Bremen, HRB 18117
CEO / Geschäftsführerin: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katja Windt
Chair Board of Governors: Prof. Dr. Karin Lochte



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