One of the great challenges of the 21st century in the humanities and cultural studies is the examination of objects. Many disciplines have discovered “things” as a means of opening up new subjects and universes of discourse. Art history plays a central role in the current discussion on things: traditionally, the field has always been about objects, whether these were paintings, statues, buildings or craftwork; however, the turnaround in visual culture has broadened its universe of discourse to include objects of popular culture and everyday culture, religious practices and things of scholarship. Broadly speaking, art history today is also a history of knowledge because it investigates objects in their epistemic contexts, thereby initiating renewed discourse. Finally, the most recent debates on provenance and restitution have drawn the attention of the general public and politics to concrete things and their biographical trails.

In light of this development, the Congress of German Art Historians would like to examine the further and long-term possibilities of this subject for the field of art history. The focus is on questions relating to the materiality of insights and to the epistemic potential of artefacts: as a medium of knowledge and of histories and stories, of courses of action and of social relationships, as something that can move seamlessly between cultures and disciplines, as the biographical trail of its creator and of itself, but also as a challenge to earlier theoretical debates. Which questions, practices and reading materials transform art historical artefacts into “things of knowledge”? What kinds of knowledge do they record, materialize and enable, how do they guide and influence perception, reasoning and actions? How is the material dimension of knowledge related to its aesthetic and figurative dimensions? And how does the perspective on the knowledge of objects impact the universe of discourse of art history and its relationship to other disciplines?

The sessions will thoroughly examine the “knowledge of objects” both historically and systematically, irrespective of the traditional boundaries between the disciplines, genres, institutions, professional guilds and national forums. In doing so, the sessions will draw upon different historical strata from all fields of art history from the art of the Ice Age to modern times.

For each proposal you can submit an exposé limited to 2,500 characters (incl. spaces) via the online application form. Please include a short biographical note (max. 10 lines) in tabular form. You may also submit up to five main areas of research and the titles of five published works.

Papers for the sessions (five 30-minute lectures per session) and the sessions of the professional groups (two 30-minute lectures each for three of the four professional groups) will be chosen during a joint meeting of the session chairs, the members of the executive committee and the local committee. The chosen speakers for the sessions and professional groups are expected to be members of the Association of German Art Historians at the latest by the beginning of the year of the congress – insofar as they have a degree in an art historical field and are a resident of Germany.

Sessions
1. OBJECT BOOK. THE CODEX AS OBJECT IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
2. TURNING TIDES. CHURCH ART AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE AROUND THE NORTH SEA (1400–1700)
3. OBJECTS OF IMPORTANCE: ARCHITECTURAL MODELS AND DOMINATING CULTURE
4. BUNDLES – ENSEMBLES – OBJECT COLLECTIVE. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ON THE ARTEFACT AS PART OF A GROUP
5. PROVENANCE OF THINGS. ON THE RECEPTION OF OBJECT BIOGRAPHIES
6. MARKET MAKES CULTURE: WORKS OF ART CAUGHT BETWEEN THE POLES OF CULTURE AND MARKETS
7. RESEARCH ON DRAWING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
8. MATTERS OF ACTIVITY
9. OBJECT OR WORK OF ART? FOR THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE IN ART
10. OBJECT DIGITALISATION: METHODS AND PROSPECTS

Complete information available online via the 'External Link' below.