Spatial Humanities Public Lecture: “Artl@s or the Promises and Challenges of Spatial Art History” by Catherine Dossin

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Started in fall 2009 at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris by Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, myself, and an international team of scholars interested in social, quantitative, and spatial approaches, Artl@s develops a global database of exhibition catalogues since the 19th century. With its cartographic and analytic tools, the database aims at decentering sources, perspectives, and narratives, as well as building bridges between artistic geographies. Structured around its research seminar and journal, Artl@s also holds training workshops and hosts international conferences that engage with the international scientific community. After introducing the project, its scope, ambitions, but also challenges, the presentation will consider three Artl@s projects: 1. GeoMap, an interactive map of exhibition spaces in Paris from 1815 to 1955, created by Léa Saint-Raymond, Julien Cavero, and Félicie Faizand de Maupeou; 2. WAS (Women Artists Shows.Salons.Societies), a research project I recently launched in partnership with AWARE, whose ambition is to build a descriptive and analytical catalogue of collective exhibitions of women artists since the 19th century and to start reflecting on the specific history of this exhibition; 3. my own research on the reception of Postwar American art in Europe, which greatly benefited from Artl@s’s tools and methods.