Venue & Date -- CFP -- Speakers -- Organizers -- Programme -- Abstracts

Venue & Date

Faculty of Art Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

Al. Niepodległości 4, 61-874 Poznań, Poland

June 17th-19th, 2022

CFP

The first exhibition of Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) in Poland provides an opportunity for international, scholarly debate on Hammershøi, inspired by one of the most significant themes in his work. The remarkable interiors, empty or with a lone figure, invite reflections on narrative efficiency, complexity of palette, the role of light, contemplative mood, and sense of space, all of which interact with, and inflect, our understanding of the composition. Although Hammershøi’s interiors contain a limited number of motifs, all his works are characterized by a significant iconic-spatial complexity. These interiors offer different directions of gaze and open up various perspectives. The tension between a partial opening of space and a simultaneous closure of access to it defines the visual dramaturgy of many of Hammershøi’s paintings. These features, which are further complicated by intangible qualities of the medium – such as surfaces that are at once substantial and ephemeral – challenge the viewer in ways that protract the moment of perception. This nexus of the literal and the implied, of presence and absence, suggest certain key questions.

Among the most important of these are the nature of a figure’s presence and the relationship of that figure to surroundings that feature a modest, but often meaningful, selection of motifs: windows, doors, pictures in frames, furniture, mirrors, etc. Furthermore, a situation in which the interior is as much a sphere of intimacy for the character as a limitation upon it may provoke a multilevel analysis that takes into account, for example, the discrete narrative potential of a scene.

One of the key issues in Hammershøi’s art, namely the relationship between figure and place, is among the essential themes of modern art. As a result, Hammershøi’s works are included in a very wide array of artistic and historical phenomena across various geographies. That is why we aim to examine painterly comparisons with a broad range of historical and geographical references, and to reflect on the interior theme in a wide perspective: one that includes, but is not limited to, the aesthetics of reception, the hermeneutics of the image or intertextuality. Hammershøi’s art also encourages questions about the image-viewer relationship, self-reflective motifs, as well as the tension between visible and invisible, and the relationship between photography and painting.

On the one hand, we aim to examine issues that define Hammershøi’s painterly idiom from various points of view. On the other hand, we want to explore references in Hammershøi’s works to the artistic tradition and art of his time, within Denmark and beyond, to examine the nature of his reception among artists and writers, and to extrapolate from these analyses an understanding of how Danish paintings generally interacted with those of other, European artists.

Guidelines for Proposal Submissions:

Please send the paper abstract not to exceed 500 words and short CV including affiliation and contact information by October 31, 2021 to: hammershoiconference@amu.edu.pl

Conference languages: English, Polish
Contact: Martyna Łukasiewicz, m.lukasiewicz@amu.edu.pl

Keynote Speakers

Maria Poprzęcka
Professor, Collegium Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw

Peter Nørgaard Larsen
Chief Curator, National Gallery of Denmark

Gertrud Oelsner
Director, Hirschsprung Collection

Organizers

Faculty of Art Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Aarhus University
National Museum in Poznań

Supported by the New Carlsberg Foundation

Programme

FRIDAY, JUNE 17TH

ADAM MICKIEWICZ HALL, COLLEGIUM MAIUS

Fredry 10, Poznań

8:30-9:00     REGISTRATION

9:00-9:30     WELCOME

Prof. UAM dr hab. Rafał Witkowski, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation, Adam Mickiewicz University

Prof. UAM dr hab. Piotr Korduba, Director of the Institute of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University

9:30-10:30    KEYNOTE LECTURE

Gertrud Oelsner

Vilhelm Hammershøi and the self-aware image

10:30-10:45    COFFEE BREAK

SESSION I

Chair: Thor Mednick

10:45-11:15    Ellen Egemose

Surfaces of expectancy: the walls of Vilhelm Hammershøi

11:15-11:45    Annette Rosenvold Hvidt

Into the corner - Hammershøi's filmic and dreamlike arrangements

11:45-12:15    Stanisław Czekalski

Figure, interior and framing

DISCUSSION

12:45-13:00    COFFEE BREAK

SESSION II

Chair: Piotr Juszkiewicz

13:00-13:30    Bente Larsen

The Gaze as an Interiority of Silencing

13:30-14:00    Michał Haake

Hammershøi's Selfportrait (1911) as his Artistic Testament

DISCUSSION

14:30-16:00    LUNCH BREAK

SESSION III

Chair: Martyna Łukasiewicz

16:00-16:30    Annette S. Ortiz Miranda

The Vilhelm Hammershøi Digital Archive (ViHDA) project

16:30-17:00    Marta Leśniakowska

Photographing (Shooting) „Hammershøi”

DISCUSSION

17:30-18:30    EVENING TALK

Maria Poprzęcka

Nostalgia for a white lace curtain. Reflections on Polish exhibitions of painting

by Vilhelm Hammershøi

SATURDAY, JUNE 18TH

ADAM MICKIEWICZ HALL, COLLEGIUM MAIUS

Fredry 10, Poznań

8:30                 OPENING SECOND DAY OF THE CONFERENCE

Prof. UAM dr hab. Michał Mencfel, Dean of the Faculty of Art Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University

8:40-9:40        KEYNOTE LECTURE

Peter Nørgaard Larsen

Hammershøi’s longing for belonging

9:40-10:00      COFFEE BREAK

SESSION I

Chair: Annette Rosenvold Hvidt

10:00-10:30    Filip Lipiński

A “slow” dialogue between Vilhelm Hammershøi and Edward Hopper

10:30-11:00    Dorota Kownacka-Rogulska

Mystery of life and the interpretation of art (Whistler)

11:00-11:30    Martyna Łukasiewicz

Individualists without revolt. Hammershøi and Bonnard

DISCUSSION

12:00-12:30    COFFEE BREAK

SESSION II

Chair: Ellen Egemose

12:30-13:00    Łukasz Kiepuszewski

Echoes and resonances. Hammershøi and Polish modernist painting

13:00-13:30    Agnieszka Rosales Rodríguez

Desire to be absent. Empty interiors in French painting at the turn of the 20th century

13:30-14:00    Thor Mednick

What Goes on Here? The Peculiar Modernity of Hammershøi's Rooms

DISCUSSION

14:30-16.00    LUNCH BREAK

SESSION III

Chair: Michał Mencfel

16:00-16:30    Luca Esposito

The Italian fortune of Vilhelm Hammershøi: a story to write

16:30-17:00    Emiliana Konopka

Is Vilhelm Hammershøi’s interior hyggelig? The Danish painter between international mood painting and the national auto-stereotype

DISCUSSION

17:30-18:00    CLOSING REMARKS: Piotr Juszkiewicz

SUNDAY, JUNE 19TH

NATIONAL MUSEUM

Aleje Marcinkowskiego 9, Poznań

11:00               MEETING AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN POZNAN (tour at the Collection)