The University of Melbourne and National Gallery of Victoria present Human Kind: Transforming Identity in British and Australian Portraits 1700-1914 . This international conference will run from September 8-11, 2016 and focus on British and Australian portraits between 1700 and 1914.

Inspired by the outstanding collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, this interdisciplinary conference will be the largest gathering of international and Australian scholars to focus on portraits. It will provide a unique opportunity to explore both British and Australian portraits through a dynamic interchange between academics and curators.

The conference will focus on British or Australian portraits both as separate fields and as overlapping or comparative studies. The portraits under discussion derive from a rich variety of international collections, with a particular focus on the portraits of the National Gallery of Victoria.

The conference aims to be both informed and provocative and to provide a robust forum for new and contemporary perspectives.

These will include:

• How portraits shape social values and invent new possibilities for defining ‘human kind’
• The importance of place and provenance in the interpretation of portraits
• How portraits form a bridge of self-interpretation between Britain and colonial society
• The bonding role of portraits, their exchange as gifts, as agents in friendship and social cohesion, as testament to empathy and kinship
• The interaction of portraits with other art forms and cultural media, including theatre, literature and music, photography and film
• The role of portraits as records of social exclusion, isolation and displacement
• Issues of authorship, attribution, restoration and the multiplication and copying of portraits

The keynote speakers are: David Solkin, Courtauld Institute of Art, London | Martin Myrone, Tate Britain, London | Kate Retford, Birkbeck, University of London | David Hansen, Australian National University, Canberra | Anna Gray, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. See the website for full abstracts for the keynote lectures.

The full program is available here: http://arts.unimelb.edu.au/culture-communication/study/art-history-and-art-curatorship/human-kind/human-kind-programme-and-abstracts

Registration is now open: http://arts.unimelb.edu.au/culture-communication/study/art-history-and-art-curatorship/human-kind/registration

For further information see the website or contact the convenors via email portrait-conference@unimelb.edu.au.