Supra Utilitatem: Finding Artistry in Functionality
The University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Kansas at Lawrence
February 26-27, 2010
AT The University of Missouri-Columbia
This year marks the annual symposium organized on alternate years by the graduate students of the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Kansas at Lawrence. The 2010 symposium will be held in Columbia, MO on February 26-27. We invite graduate students to submit papers addressing the co-existent relationship of art and utilitarianism. We seek submissions from a broad spectrum of historical periods, geographical regions, and a wide variety of theoretical approaches. Graduate students in any discipline are welcome to submit papers, provided there is a visual component. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the dialogue and/or tensions between art and function, including issues of ornamentation and craftsmanship, artists’ self-conscious commentary on art and function, architecture, and the decorative arts.
The Keynote Speaker this year is Kenneth Lapatin, Associate Curator of Antiquities with the J. Paul Getty Museum. He holds degrees from Oxford University (M. Stud.), and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D.), and areas of specialization are ancient Mediterranean Art and archaeology (particularly the Aegean Bronze Age, Greek and Roman), historiography, forgery, reception, and luxury arts. He has conducted fieldwork in Caesaria Martima (Israel), Rome and Corinth, and his main publications include “Chryselephantine Statuary in the Ancient Mediterranean World”, and “Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History”. Dr. Lapatin is the AIA’s 2009/2010 Joukowsky Lecturer.
All abstracts should be submitted electronically to the symposium committee at ahagsa@missouri.edu and should be no more than 300 words. Deadline for submissions is January 1, 2010 and students will be notified electronically about their acceptance status by January 15, 2010.