[AMS-announce] CFP: Old Age and Late Works (15th-21st Centuries), Univ. of Poitiers, Dec 2009

[Announcements for the AMS]

CFP: OLD AGE AND LATE WORKS (15TH-21ST CENTURIES)
International Conference, 10-12 decembre 2009
Poitiers, Université de Poitiers, UFR Sciences Humaines et Arts, GERHICO

Artists’ longevity is a topic that raises question about biography’s impact on
creation. Artistic production in old age often coincides with a drastic change
of style, resulting from a reconsideration of preceding skills and positions,
if not a return to basics. This final season of life has fed the romantic myth
of the elderly genius’s absolute liberty of expression, reaching an
incomparable dramatic intensity, as a constant in major artists’ late
production throughout history. The old age of artists has been, however, a
subject of debate since the Renaissance, when senility’s consequences on
artistic creation were often denounced as a defect. Historiography has long
fluctuated between these two interpretative positions, glorifying the liberty
of expression of late works or denigrating the imperfections of their
workmanship or conception. Most recently, scholars have considered the status
of late works in relation to the psychological, cultural and social conditions
that the negative consideration of old age could have on senior artists’
production, independent of its quality. In spite of the attention paid to this
topic, we still lack for a comprehensive view that considers late artistic
creation over a long period and in different fields of expression, allowing us
to question its specificity with respect to the wider spectrum of intellectual
and scientific production by those of advanced age. This conference’s purpose
is therefore to treat the topic of old age and its late creations over an
extended chronology – from the Renaissance to the modern era – in visual arts,
music and literature, establishing a dialogue between those different
disciplines.

For more information: http://www.mshs.univ-poitiers.fr/gerhico/accueil.html

Submissions dead-line : 31 march 2009 (text : at most 2.000 characters; curriculum vitae : at most 1 page)
Contact : diane.bodart at univ-poitiers.fr