The Destinies of World Abstractionism. Centenary of the Birth of Guy de Montlaur (1918-1977)

Russian State University for the Humanities

Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

Call for papers

International scientific conference

“The Destinies of World Abstractionism.

Centenary of the Birth of Guy de Montlaur (1918-1977)”

October 11th, 12th and 13th, 2018

The first international conference dedicated to the art works of Guy de Montlaur (1918-1977), the year of the centenary of the master’s birth, is called to explore the heritage of the French expressionist artist in a broad multicultural and interdisciplinary context. The organizing committee of the conference suggests that researchers consider a number of topics that would allow to focus on the place and role of abstract art in the culture of modernity, on the connections between the classical period of abstractionism and media aesthetics and representative visual features of contemporary communication, to explore the destinies of abstractionism in their historical, aesthetic, typological, genetic, artistic and technical aspects.

1. The creative quest of abstractionist artists of Guy de Montlaur’s generation; connections and influences, directions and branches in abstractionism; discussions of 1940-1950s on the place and purpose of abstract art; Wassily Kandinsky's book “On the spiritual in art” in the development of world abstractionism.

2. The war in Guy de Montlaur’s and other artists’ creative biography: the philosophy of trauma and self-transcendence, painting as an embodiment of war theme, the place of memory and the way to oblivion, “psychosomatics” of painting and, more broadly, of the creative experience.

3. Abstractionism in search of spiritual revelation: symbolic, mystical, apocalyptic, prophetic motives in abstractionism, expressionism and their various forms.

4. Specificity of the perception of abstract art and its destinies in the criticism and history of painting.

5. The past enriches the present: media aesthetics in the context of abstract art and searches in the field of color, shape, and texture.

6. Self-isolation: the mutual influence of market conjuncture and psychology of creativity in painting and art; departure from public space and features of “art for art’s sake” in Guy de Montlaur’s art works; parallels with the destinies of other artists; pragmatics of the market and pragmatics of the inspiration and self-expression.

The range of topics under consideration can be expanded.

Guy de Montlaur’s art works are presented on the website, the artist’s biography in English is available on the website of Wikipedia.

During the conference, an exhibition of the artist's works and a round table dedicated to the paintings presented at this exhibition will be held.

Following the results of the conference, it is planned to publish a collective monograph dedicated to the artist's centenary. The text of the monograph will be placed in the RSCI (Russian Science Citation Index) database, the possibility of translation of the book into English and French is being discussed.

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Abstracts with indication of your full name, professional position, academic degree and title, subject of your paper, brief summaries in English, Russian or French (up to 1000 characters with spaces) and you e-mail address should be sent to the email of the organizing committee of the conference [email protected] by April 30, 2018.