Call for Papers: Conference on ‘PRINTS IN THEIR PLACE: New research on printed images in their places of production, sale and use’
Organizers: Dr. Sheila McTighe (Senior Lecturer, Courtauld Institute), Dr. Paris Spies-Gans
(Harvard University Society of Fellows), Dr. Anita Viola Sganzerla (Independent scholar)
Conference at the Research Forum, Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square, Kings Cross,
London
Friday-Saturday 19-20 June 2020
Description of the conference’s scope:
We solicit papers that address printed images in relation to their early modern and modern
contexts in the broadest sense. We hope to include papers that cover the full span of the history of
prints, and the range of disciplines in which print is now studied, from art history, the history of the
book and print culture studies, to the history of science and ideas.
We open up the terms ‘place’ or ‘context’ to include a variety of approaches to the study of prints
and of print. To look at prints in their place might concern the relation between prints and their
place of production—how did the spaces and formats of artists’ workshops shape their creative
process and affect the prints produced? How did the entrepreneurship of print producers in
workshops and publishing houses affect the print materials that were bought by their customers?
How were the places in which cheap prints were sold—on the street, in the piazza, the book fair,
the market table—reflected in their format, imagery, and functions? Equally rich contexts include
the places in which printed materials were collected, stored, and used: how did the formats and
conventions for looking at prints, pamphlets and books, in libraries, kunstkammer, galleries,
chapels, schools, kitchens, laboratories, bedrooms, coffee shops and salons, affect the way prints
were made as well as what they portrayed? More broadly, when print shops and book shops were
clustered into certain streets or districts in the city, and/or when a locality became associated with
the print trade, what effects did the character of this site have on the culture of print in that place?
We also encourage topics that consider gender as well as women artists—Were these places
gendered? Did women cultivate their own spaces of print production? When and where did women
actors navigate the spaces above? What was the place of print, literally or figuratively, for aspiring
or established women artists or publishers? The places for prints might also be considered as
metaphoric or imagined spaces, such as the international arena for news and political debate.
Finally, we invite studies of such real or imagined places for prints that extend beyond western
Europe.
If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, please send a proposal with your
name and institutional affiliation (if you have one), your paper’s title, an abstract of no more than
200 words, and a brief cv, to sheila.mctighe@courtauld.ac.uk. Deadline for submissions is 15
January 2020.
(Harvard University Society of Fellows), Dr. Anita Viola Sganzerla (Independent scholar)
Conference at the Research Forum, Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square, Kings Cross,
London
Friday-Saturday 19-20 June 2020
Description of the conference’s scope:
We solicit papers that address printed images in relation to their early modern and modern
contexts in the broadest sense. We hope to include papers that cover the full span of the history of
prints, and the range of disciplines in which print is now studied, from art history, the history of the
book and print culture studies, to the history of science and ideas.
We open up the terms ‘place’ or ‘context’ to include a variety of approaches to the study of prints
and of print. To look at prints in their place might concern the relation between prints and their
place of production—how did the spaces and formats of artists’ workshops shape their creative
process and affect the prints produced? How did the entrepreneurship of print producers in
workshops and publishing houses affect the print materials that were bought by their customers?
How were the places in which cheap prints were sold—on the street, in the piazza, the book fair,
the market table—reflected in their format, imagery, and functions? Equally rich contexts include
the places in which printed materials were collected, stored, and used: how did the formats and
conventions for looking at prints, pamphlets and books, in libraries, kunstkammer, galleries,
chapels, schools, kitchens, laboratories, bedrooms, coffee shops and salons, affect the way prints
were made as well as what they portrayed? More broadly, when print shops and book shops were
clustered into certain streets or districts in the city, and/or when a locality became associated with
the print trade, what effects did the character of this site have on the culture of print in that place?
We also encourage topics that consider gender as well as women artists—Were these places
gendered? Did women cultivate their own spaces of print production? When and where did women
actors navigate the spaces above? What was the place of print, literally or figuratively, for aspiring
or established women artists or publishers? The places for prints might also be considered as
metaphoric or imagined spaces, such as the international arena for news and political debate.
Finally, we invite studies of such real or imagined places for prints that extend beyond western
Europe.
If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, please send a proposal with your
name and institutional affiliation (if you have one), your paper’s title, an abstract of no more than
200 words, and a brief cv, to sheila.mctighe@courtauld.ac.uk. Deadline for submissions is 15
January 2020.