Histories of American and British sculpture are often told separately, with artists and their work contextualised according to nationality. This division, however, obscures a rich trans-Atlantic exchange of ideas, individuals, and aesthetic influences. The post-war art world saw lively interaction between British and American sculptors such as Moore, Caro, Smith and Nauman, as well as critics and curators including Greenberg, Fried, Selz, Read, Alloway, Banham, Tuchman, Valentin and Valentiner. This conference brings attention to the international movement of people, objects, and ideas, and examines the particular importance of Anglo-American exchange to the post-war history of sculpture.

The conference marks the Getty’s acquisition and installation of the Stark Collection – twenty-eight works of modern sculpture by some of the field’s most important artists. We aim to explore the broader issues and contexts that surround such a collection, and encourage scholarship that takes a critical look at aspects of this transatlantic sculptural and cultural exchange in the post-war period. We invite papers that examine the development of sculpture in the United States and the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1975 as it occurred in a variety of movements, including: ‘Geometry of Fear’ bronze sculpture, junk art, assemblage and welded sculpture, ‘New Generation’ abstract sculpture, Pop Art, minimalism, land art, happenings, performance art and conceptualism.

We welcome papers that address, for example:
- The political dimensions of transatlantic cultural exchange, questions of cultural colonialism, and the role of international competitions.
- The institutional and private interests that shaped Anglo-American exchange, including art museums, exhibitions, curators, gallery shows, and art dealers.
- The influence of trans-Atlantic teachers and pedagogical practices, as well as particular art schools in the US and UK.
- The role of art critical interpretations and interpreters on both sides of the Atlantic, and the role of magazines and journals within this context.
Please submit 300 word abstracts to David Morritt
(DMorritt@getty.edu) with a copy to Jon Wood (jonw@henry-moore.ac.uk) by 12 November 2007.

A publication of proceedings from this conference is planned.