WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Thursday, Oct. 19, and Friday, Oct. 20, the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute hosts a Clark Conference, The Fetish A(r)t Work: African Objects in the Making of European Art History 1500–1900. 

 

The program begins at 9 am in the Clark's auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center. The program is free and open to the public.

 

According to a press release:

 

The conference brings together scholars across the humanities who examine the making and "invention" of African art in European discourse. Convened by scholar and former Clark Professor Anne Lafont (The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences [EHESS], Paris), this conference delves into diverse writings on African objects and interrogates various orientations that transformed these objects, from ritual artifacts and fetishes to works that circulated on the art market and were held in private collections and public museums. The discussion encompasses global art history, natural history, travel literature, ships' inventories, African geography, comparative religion texts, sales and private collection catalogs, and technical treatises. 

 

Participants include:

 

Anne Lafont (convener), professor

École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris

 

Jean-Luc Aka-Evy, philosopher and art historian

Congo-Brazzaville

 

Alexander Bevilacqua, associate professor of history

Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts

 

Yaëlle Biro, independent scholar and curator

Paris

 

Justin Brown, Samuel H. Kress Predoctoral Fellow

Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington, DC

 

Joshua I. Cohen, associate professor of art history

City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, New York 

 

Roberto Conduru, endowed distinguished professor of art history

Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

 

Cécile Fromont, professor of history of art

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

 

Gabriele Genge, professor

Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany

 

Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor and Chair of English

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

 

Alexandre Girard-Muscagorry, curator

Musée de la Musique (Philharmonie de Paris)

 

Didier Houénoudé

Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Godomey, Benin

 

Daniel H. Leonard, assistant professor

College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia

 

Risham Majeed, associate professor of art, art history, and architecture

Ithaca College, South Hill, New York

 

Lionel Manga, writer and cultural critic

Douala, Cameroon

 

Matthew Francis Rarey, associate professor of African and Black Atlantic art history

Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio