HESCAH Symposium | Beyond Biography: Artistic Practice and Personhood in Colonial Latin America

Thursday, Oct. 10 – Friday, Oct. 11, 2019

What was the nature of artistic work in colonial Latin America? This symposium gathers leading scholars to think about artistic subjectivity without focusing on names or “life’s work.” We will consider artistic personhood and practice within social structures, in relation to medium, and as determined by gender, age, and race. We strive for a greater understanding of colonial Latin American art itself, as well as of the human agency that brought it into being.

KEYNOTE
Thursday, October 10, 6 pm at Smathers Library Room 100
"The Human Element: Painters and the Profession in Early Colonial Quito"

Susan V. Webster, Professor Emerita of Art History and American Studies, College of William & Mary

What’s in a name? The historiography of colonial Latin American art is rife with lamentations over the widespread anonymity of early colonial painters. Yet, should naming matter? Can it help us better understand colonial painters, their profession, and, by extension, the images they produced? This talk focuses on painters in early colonial Quito in order to examine issues related to the politics of naming, artistic agency, professional practices, and the European “life-work” model of art historical inquiry. Far from establishing a “canon” along European lines or tempting us to parse hybridity in the images themselves, the archival recovery of named painters and aspects of their lives offers fragmentary but compelling insights into the human element that remains largely invisible in early colonial paintings.

*Note that the keynote is NOT held at the Harn Museum of Art

SYMPOSIUM
Friday, October 11, 9:30 am - 5 pm

9:30 - 10 am
Coffee

10 - 10:45 am
Welcome and Introductory Talk
"A Claim for Craft in the Development of Artists’ Rights"
Maya Stanfield-Mazzi, University of Florida

10:45 - 12:15 pm
Panel 1
Moderated by Elizabeth Ross, University of Florida
Talks by Jennifer Saracino, Flagler College and Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, University of Florida

12:30 - 1:30
Lunch (on your own)

1:30 - 3 pm
Panel 2
Moderated by Melissa Hyde, University of Florida
Talks by Derek Burdette, University of Florida and Aaron Hyman, John Hopkins University

3 - 3:30 pm
Questions and Discussion

3:30 - 5 pm
Panel 3
Moderated by Eleanor Laughlin, University of Florida
Talks by Emily Floyd, UCL and Ananda Cohen-Aponte, Cornell University
 

Address

3259 Hull Road

Phone

352-392-9826

Website

Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art Website