The Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute presents The Fetish A(r)t Work: African Objects in the Making of European Art History 1500–1900, a two-day Clark Conference held October 19–20, 2023.

This conference brings together scholars across the humanities who examine the making and “invention” of African art in European discourse. Convened by scholar and former Clark Professor Anne Lafont (The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences [EHESS], Paris), this conference delves into diverse writings on African objects and interrogates various orientations which transformed these objects, from ritual artifacts and fetishes to works that circulated on the art market and were held in private collections and public museums. The discussion encompasses global art history, natural history, travel literature, ships’ inventories, African geography, comparative religion texts, sales and private collection catalogues, and technical treatises. 

Participants:

Anne Lafont (convener), professor, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris

Jean-Luc Aka-Evy, philosopher and art historian, Congo-Brazzaville

Alexander Bevilacqua, associate professor of history, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Yaëlle Biro, independent scholar and curator, Paris

Justin Brown, Samuel H. Kress Predoctoral Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington, DC

Joshua I. Cohen, associate professor of art history, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, New York 

Roberto Conduru, endowed distinguished professor of art history, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

Cécile Fromont, professor of history of art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Gabriele Genge, professor, Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor and Chair of English, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Alexandre Girard-Muscagorry, curator, Musée de la Musique (Philharmonie de Paris)

Daniel H. Leonard, assistant professor, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia

Risham Majeed, associate professor of art, art history, and architecture, Ithaca College, South Hill, New York

Lionel Manga, writer and cultural critic, Douala, Cameroon

Matthew Francis Rarey, associate professor of African and Black Atlantic art history, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

Free.

All proceedings will be held in person in the auditorium in the Clark's Manton Research Center (225 South Street, Williamstown, Massachusetts); you may park in the main museum parking lot (pull into the driveway at the Clark Art Institute entrance signage), or the closest parking lot located just below the Manton Research Center, accessed by taking the second (unmarked) driveway, the next drive past the museum entrance sign. The proceedings will not be livestreamed or recorded. If you are unable to attend, we encourage you to visit our publications page for the resulting Clark Studies in the Visual Arts volume that will be published in 2023/24.

Image: Jean Barbot, The Writings of Jean Barbot on West Africa 1678–1712 (1992 edition), vol. II, Gold Coast (Ghana) objects.