emaj issue 4 is now LIVE

Issue 4 of emaj (electronic melbourne art journal) is now live. Established in 2005 it is the only fully online refereed art history journal in Australia. It is edited by PhD students and graduates from the Art History department at The University of Melbourne. It is dedicated to showcasing the work of both emerging and established scholars from Australia, New Zealand and internationally. It is now featured on the National Library of Australia website and on Wilson Art Abstracts. To read the current issue click here. Submissions for the next issue will be due in March 2010, click here for more details. http://bit.ly/70MSOEww

Launch of emaj issue 4, 2009

The emaj editors invite you all to join us to celebrate the launch of emaj issue 4. Launch of emaj issue 4, 2009 Drinks in the courtyard, Elisabeth Murdoch Building University of Melbourne, Parkville Tuesday December 15, 6-8pm All welcome! Please join us for drinks to celebrate the launch of our 2009 edition! emaj (electronic Melbourne art journal) is the only online, refereed art history journal published in Australia. Founded in 2005, emaj aims to provide an international forum for the publication of original academic research by emerging and established scholars in all areas and periods of art history. All Welcome. If you are on Facebook you can see the event here and to be informed of future issues and calls for papers become a fan of emaj here. www.melbourneartjournal.unimelb.edu/E-MAJ

Stephen Mead – Bohemianism in colonial Melbourne: a study of four artists’ clubs

Stephen Mead Bohemianism in colonial Melbourne: a study of four artists’ clubs This paper examines the development of a Bohemian culture in colonial Melbourne, focussing on four artists’ clubs: The Buonarotti Club (1883-87), Stray Leaves (1889-92), The Cannibal Club (1893-97) and The Ishmael Club (1898-1901). It investigates the role of the writer Marcus Clarke in introducing Parisian and London models of Bohemianism to Melbourne between 1865-1880.  It will be argued that these clubs played a more significant function in the shaping of professional artistic life during this period than has previously been acknowledged. Monday December 14th, 2009 Room 148, Elizabeth Murdoch Building, Parkville Campus 6:30-7pm EVCS Christmas Drinks. Paper from 7pm. Dinner afterwards. ALL WELCOME. Please RSVP for dinner to Mark Shepheard, shepm@unimelb.edu.au

Amelia Douglas ‘Pierre Huyghe’ – FAN postdoctoral lecture.

Amelia Douglas Recipient of the 2009 Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD, University of Melbourne Pierre Huyghe and the Association of Freed Time What is at stake in the making and recording of history, and what does it mean for a contemporary artist to work as an historiographer? The contemporary French artist Pierre Huyghe is well-known for his multi-faceted works that operate in the gaps between history and story. In this lecture, Huyghe’s practice is shown to facilitate a new model of contemporary history. History as a discursive concept is pliable; its meaning shifts depending on contexts. In presenting an historiographic reading of Huyghe’s practice, this lecture reflects upon how the coalescence of story and history may be a key factor in pulling together the diverse strands of Australian and international art histories. Pierre Huyghe is one of the most significant artists of the 21st century. His work –…

Margaret Manion Lecture 2009

Sophie Matthiesson Curator, International Art, National Gallery of Victoria Captive Markets: Artists in Prison in the French Revolution Hundreds of artists found themselves in prison during the French Revolution. While confined surprising numbers resumed painting, sculpting, drawing and even engraving. Few prisons were without some level or artistic production and exchange. Based on unpublished research of French prison archives and prison-made works of art, this lecture addresses some basic questions. Who were the artists, and why were they imprisoned? What did they make and for whom? Using select case studies, this talk will propose some basic categories and functions of the prison-made object and present a model for its interpretation. It will also consider some of the wider implications of this curious and little-known area of cultural production for our understanding of the political prison in France in the period…

Joseph Burke Lecture 2009 – Jason Smith

The Joseph Burke Lecture 2009 Jason Smith Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art Dark Theatres and Erotic Intensities: some thoughts on the works of Bacon, Henson, Booth and Boynes This lecture will be a further elaboration of my long standing interest in the humanist foundation of the works of many artists with whose practices I have interacted closely during my career. In this lecture I focus on the works of Francis Bacon, Bill Henson, Peter Booth and Robert Boynes as artists who were and are sensitive barometers of their times. Their works alert us to unpredictable and sometimes dire evolutions in culture by offering us images and ideas that are alternative to the mainstream. In his 1878 treatise Human, All Too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that if ‘someone doesn’t want to see something, they won’t.’ The works of Bacon, Henson,…