Keynote: Dr. James Boaden (University of York)
The Convulsive Nursery: Surrealism, Childhood and Sexuality

Desire is arguably the over-riding consideration in the study of art, for desire acts as the principal motivation in the drive to create, look at, study, collect, covet and possess art objects. As such, we believe that the theme for this year’s New Voices postgraduate conference, now in its seventh year, will act as an exciting platform upon which students will be able to present their research, and more importantly, inspire debate amongst all that attend. Organised by the Student Members’ Committee of the Association of Art Historians, the annual New Voices conference offers an informal, supportive and stimulating atmosphere within which students can learn, interact and discuss key issues within contemporary Art Historical scholarship. For our keynote this year, we are proud to present Dr. James Boaden, newly appointed to the University of York. James Boaden’s research focuses on American art from the mid-twentieth century, and looks in particular at the crossover between experimental film culture and the art world during that period. His keynote talk has developed from his position at the Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies at the University of Manchester.

The booking deadline for this event is Monday 2 November 2009, and tickets are priced at £5 per person Booking is essential and places are limited, so to reserve your place, please go to: www.aah.org.uk/student/conferences.php or contact Matt Lodder at: admin@aah.org.uk. This event is only open to existing AAH members; to join please go to: www.aah.org.uk/membership/index.php

For further enquiries concerning this event, please contact Tamsin Foulkes at txf454@bham.ac.uk or Peter Stilton at ps3669@bristol.ac.uk

ACADEMIC PROGRAM

Session 1: Fleshy Bodies
Chair: Peter Stilton (University of Bristol)

Basia Sliwinska (Loughborough University)
The Eclipse of Gender: Seductive Bodies in Contemporary Sculpture

Frank Ferrie (Birkbeck, University of London)
The Desire for Conformity: Images of the Female Body as Vehicles for Social Control in 15th-Century Tuscany

Session 2: Desire, Beauty, Love
Chair: Tamsin Foulkes (University of Birmingham)

Kerry Gavaghan (University of Oxford)
Renaissance Cassoni: The Practicality of Desire

Katie Faulkner (Coutauld Institute of Art)
The Creative Power of the World: Ruskinian Beauty versus Darwinian Desire in Rossetti’s Venus Verticordia (1864–68)

Catherine Hunt (University of Bristol)
Honourable intentions?: The Depiction of Gloves in 16th- and 17th-Century Art to reflect Love, Desire and Marital Fidelity

Session 3: Subversive Sexuality
Chair: Suzy Freake (University of Nottingham)

Rebecca Rose (University of Essex)
Desire as Grotesque: Transposition of Sexual Fear onto the Female Subject in Figurative Painting

Esra Plumer (University of Nottingham)
Mastery over Madness: Reading Zürn’s Performance through Bellmer’s Photography