Art and colonialism, an international conference in Padua with world experts

On February 7 and 8, 2019, the Department of Cultural Heritage of theUniversity of Padua hosts the conference Critical Aspects and Visual Proposals of the Confrontation with Otherness between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. International Days of Study, dedicated to the theme “art and colonialism” and curated by Giuliana Tomasella, Marta Nezzo and Priscilla Manfren. This is an international conference that brings together some of the leading experts on non-European arts and colonial productions to better focus on the complex and fascinating relationships that developed over the last two centuries between the states of the Old Continent and the many alternative civilizations to it: through the privileged medium of the visual arts, critical aspects of the theme of art as a useful propaganda tool for building a national colonial consciousness and the links of this particular artistic production with history and political events, which marked the development of European imperialism, are highlighted. In addition to lunges on the artists, who contributed to the development of colonial art and its manifestations, there will be no shortage of notes on the current outcomes of that confrontation, noting the current arrangement of the identity-imperiality pair, as addressed by museums and critics in the joint frequentation of European and non-European objects. It will thus be possible to draw an overall picture in which contemporary art, non-European art, anthropology and ethnology intersect, allowing light to be shed on the new interpretative perspectives of studies.

The conference is part of the line of research on non-European arts and colonial productions that has been developed by the University of Padua for years. Below is the program of the two days, for more information you can visit the website of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua.

Thursday, February 7, 2019, 2:30 p.m.

Institutional greetings
ANDREA TOMEZZOLI (Dir. Doctoral Course in History, Criticism and Conservation of Cultural Heritage)

COLONIAL ART: DEFINITION AND CRITICAL ASPECTS

DOMINIQUE JARRASSÉ (Univ. Bordeaux-Montaigne)
Définition et usages propagandistes de l’art colonial. Approche comparée entre la Belgique, la France et l’Italie (1920 - 1940)

GIULIANA TOMASELLA (Univ. of Padua)
For a history of colonial art: iI unpublished book by Michele Biancale (1940)

REPRESENTATIONS OF OTHERNESS

MASSIMO ZACCARIA (Univ. of Pavia)
From Sir Robert Napier to Hadish Zemen: for a history of photography in Eritrea 1868-1941

PRISCILLA MANFREN (Univ. of Padua)
Colonial Somalia between art and propaganda: works and exhibition histories of some Italian authors

MARIA PAOLA DETTORI (Soprint. of Sassari and Nuoro)
Colonies. Reflections on the identities, fortunes and role of Sardinian artists overseas

CHIARA MARIN (Univ. of Padua)
The Colonies of Graphic Artists: Dudovich, Testi, Carboni between exotic fascination and propagandistic instances

VANESSA RIGHETTONI (Univ. of Udine)
Images, Race and the Ethiopian War. Some cases in the Italian periodical press

Friday, February 8, 2019, 09:00 a.m.

EXHIBITIONS, MUSEUMS, ARCHITECTURE

LUÍS ÁNGEL SÁNCHEZ GÓMEZ (Univ. Complutense de Madrid)
La otredad evangelizada y exhibida: una revision de las exposiciones etno-misionales (1851-1958)

MARTA BOSCOLO MARCHI (Direz. Museo d’Arte Orientale di Venezia)
A Home for the Orient in Venice. Of the Bourbon Collection at the Museum of Oriental Art.

LUCA QUATTROCCHI (Univ. of Siena)
Composition and volume: art deco in Tunisia between imported models and local culture.

NON-EUROPEAN ARTS: PROBLEMS OF RECEPTION

MARTA NEZZO (Univ. of Padua)
The scientific reception of African art in early 20th century Italy: notes

LUCA PIETRO NICOLETTI (Fondaz. Passare - Milan)
Primitives in Milan. Moments of reception in the postwar period

LEOPOLDO IVAN BARGNA (Univ. of Milano-Bicocca)
A world in black and white? Race and contemporary art, between collection and archive

ALESSANDRO DEL PUPPO (Univ. of Udine)
“Je suis l’autre,” but who is speaking? Reflections on an ancient exhibition and a recent one

Art and colonialism, an international conference in Padua with world experts

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