[spectre] CFP: Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery (Zagreb, 19-21 May 22)

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: Croatian Society of Art Historians
Date: Nov 28, 2021
Subject: CFP: Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery 
(Zagreb, 19-21 May 22)

Zagreb, Croatia, May 19–21, 2022
Deadline: Jan 25, 2022

Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery - An homage to 
Ljubo Karaman

Since its founding in 1956, the Croatian Society of Art Historians has 
brought art historians together to promote the importance of our 
profession through a variety of events and publishing projects.
Over the past eight years, we have undertaken a project entitled 
"Croatian Art Historians", which we believe will have an important 
impact on domestic and international dialogue.
This international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet 
and exchange ideas and views in a forum that will stimulate respectful 
dialogue by bringing together European and international university 
scholars to share ideas and research on the dualistic centre-periphery 
paradigm in terms of art history based on work by Ljubo Karaman.
Ljubo Karaman (1886–1971) was a Croatian art historian. Karaman’s 
theoretical and practical work strongly marked the formative period of 
art history and conservation in Croatia between the two world wars and 
in the immediate postwar period. His most important contribution to the 
general history of art lies in his theoretical considerations of the 
notion of the periphery, the true historical basis of which is the 
artistic heritage of the Croatian regions. Karaman combined the 
theoretical results of his research experience in the study of national 
heritage in his book O djelovanju domaće sredine u umjetnosti hrvatskih 
krajeva (Über die Einwirkung des einheimischen Milieus auf die 
Entwicklung der Kunst in den kroatischen Ländern, Zagreb: Croatian 
Society of Art Historians, 1963). Karaman’s study was an internationally 
acclaimed contribution to thought on one of the key issues in 
contemporary art history and cultural history. This issue is still 
relevant today, as confirmed by the numerous international conferences, 
research networks, and projects that focus on it. Contemporary critical 
thought is trending towards the complete deconstruction and overcoming 
of ideologically manipulated dualism in the valorization of cultural 
production in the ‘periphery’. Such manipulation perpetuates the 
paradigms of the relationship between power and influence, which are 
dictated from the very centres in which they were created. The 
conference in Zagreb will contribute to a critical reflection on the 
origins, application, and challenges of the dualistic paradigm, 
primarily in art history between the Adriatic and Central Europe, which 
was the focus of Karaman’s work.
Ljubo Karaman was educated at the Vienna School of Art History at the 
beginning of the 20th century; his approach to historical art phenomena 
was essentially determined by the cosmopolitanism of the Vienna School 
and its affirmative attitude towards art in the ‘provinces’ (or 
peripheries). Another important element is his dialectical attitude 
towards the ideas of early 20th-century Austrian, Italian, Croatian, and 
Yugoslav art historians. Likewise, as a conservator, Karaman was 
delimited by the norms of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (k. k. Central 
Commission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale), which was 
marked by the concepts and methodology of the new conservation movement 
in central Europe. In the field of conservation in the 20th century, 
Karaman was responsible for connecting European centres and the Croatian 
periphery.
Karaman’s conservation work took place during a period of great changes 
and challenges, not only in the field of cultural heritage protection, 
but also in the field of politics. After the Italian occupation of 
Dalmatia in 1941, Karaman moved from Split to Zagreb, where he accepted 
the position of director of the State Conservation Institute during the 
Independent State of Croatia. He remained in this position in the new, 
socialist Yugoslavia until 1950, when he retired. His active and 
critical role in three different political, economic, and ideological 
structures still encourages reflection on the possibilities and 
achievements of art historians, conservators, museologists, and experts 
in related disciplines in the scientific interpretation of heritage and 
the protection of monuments, in ‘primitive’, local parochialist, or 
nationally ideologised environments, i.e. under totalitarian regimes and 
social systems. This simultaneously begs the issue of the freedom of art 
historians/conservators and the conscientious, professional, and 
impartial performance of their duties.

Conference participants should focus on one of the following issues in 
their presentations:
- critical reflection on the emergence, application, and challenges of 
the dualistic centre-periphery paradigm,
- the centre-periphery paradigm in the field of conservation and 
monument protection,
- the Vienna School of Art History and interpretation of the art of the 
periphery (provinces) during the monarchy and after its disintegration,
- national art histories and the centre-periphery paradigm,
- the professions of art history and conservation in the 20th century 
between provincialism, cosmopolitanism and political totalitarianism,
- new insights into the life and work of Ljubo Karaman,
- the reception of Ljubo Karaman’s work from the perspective of 
“entangled” art history,
- the reception and implementation of conservation theories and 
conventions between 1920 and 1965.

Organizing Committee
Franko Ćorić, PhD, Department of Art History Faculty of Humanities and 
Social Sciences University of Zagreb
Ljerka Dulibić, PhD, The Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters of the 
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Jasenka Gudelj, PhD, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca’ 
Foscari University Venice
Zvonko Maković, PhD, president of the Croatian Society of Art Historians
Predrag Marković, PhD, Department of Art History Faculty of Humanities 
and Social Sciences University of Zagreb
Milan Pelc, PhD, Institute of Art History, Zagreb
Martina Petrinović, secretary of the Croatian Society of Art Historians
Organizing Committee is responsible for nominating Keynote and Featured 
Speakers; developing the conference program and overseeing the reviewing 
of abstracts submitted to the conference

Abstract Submission Deadline: January 25, 2022
online application form 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0Z8ixdS1CqcHv2Ta72hYBAMZjeX3v9T-rR65NFGkFEcOEmg/viewform?usp=send_form

Presentation format: oral presentation (15 minutes) – each presentation 
is followed by short discussion
Conference fee: 55 EUR (after acceptance)

Contact: Croatian Society of Art Historians // dpuh at inet.hr // 
www.dpuh.hr // Preradovićeva 44, Zagreb // +38514812920


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery (Zagreb, 
19-21 May 22). In: ArtHist.net, Nov 28, 2021. 
<https://arthist.net/archive/35423>.