CFP: Modern Art in Lebanon, 1955-1975 (for publication)
In collaboration with Saradar Collection and Anthem Press, AMCA announces a call for papers for publication. The publication will accompany the first iteration of Saradar’s annual project, Perspective, in which a guest curator is invited to engage critically, through a variety of platforms, with a theme inspired by the collection. This year’s inaugural project, Witness to a Golden Age: Mapping Beirut’s Art Scene, 1955-1975, is curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. Using a selection of artworks from the collection as a starting point, they have amassed an unprecedented amount of archival materials and primary sources consisting of more than 1,000 newspaper articles, unpublished letters, photographs, exhibition materials, and film footage of exhibitions and studio visits that span two decades of artistic production and cover more than 50 of the most active art spaces in Beirut between 1955 and 1975. This considerable corpus is featured on a dedicated website in the form of a searchable map and interactive timeline: http://saradarperspective.com/perspective1.
The winning submission will receive an honorarium to research and write a scholarly biography of one artwork from the Saradar Collection that dates to the period of 1955-1975 ( http://www.saradar.com/ContentFiles/1239PDFLink.pdf). The manuscript (20,000-30,000 words) will be published in paperback format by Anthem Press as part of The Anthem Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey series (for details on the series, see below).
To submit a proposal, please email a CV and 500-word abstract that includes the significance of the chosen artwork to amcainternational@gmail.org. The deadline for proposals is May 1 2019. The manuscript is to be submitted to AMCA on November 1 2019 for peer review and editing before publication by Anthem Press.
The Anthem Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey series publishes scholarly biographies of art works from the region. Each publication traces the historical trajectory of an individual artwork, from the circumstances of production (including artist’s biography and socio-cultural context of place) through its exhibition history with collectors and museums. This series is published in collaboration with The Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (AMCA). https://amcainternational.org/anthem-press/
The Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA) is a private, non-profit, non-political, international organization. An affiliate organization of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and the College Art Association (CAA), AMCA aims to advance the study of this emerging field through the creation of a network of interested scholars and organizations. We will facilitate communication and cooperation among those in the field by sponsoring conferences, holding meetings, and exchanging information via a newsletter and website. https://amcainternational.org
Saradar Collection is an initiative built around a private collection with a public mission to preserve, study and share modern and contemporary art from Lebanon. Continuously expanding, the collection contains more than 250 works of art by over 40 artists dating from 1917 until today. Initiated by Mario Saradar in 2012, Saradar Collection is part of Marius Saradar Holding, a family-owned business. As international interest in Lebanese art is increasing, the initiative’s aim is to support local artists and ensure that a significant part of the country’s artistic heritage is preserved and shared. http://www.saradarcollection.com/
Drs. Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are internationally recognized independent curators and academics, and founders of Art Reoriented, a multidisciplinary curatorial platform based in Munich and New York. They are Chairmen of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation in Hamburg, and Affiliate Curators at the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin. Bardaouil and Fellrath have held teaching positions at various universities including the London School of Economics and New York University. They are award-winning authors and editors of numerous publications with contributions to a broad range of academic journals, books, newspapers and art magazines. Their curatorial practice is equally rooted in the field of modernist studies, as well as in global contemporary artistic practices. www.artreoriented.com