Russian Landscape Conference

[Margaret Samu]

LANDSCAPE AND THE ARTS IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA
TWO-DAY CONFERENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE TO
ACCOMPANY THE EXHIBITION OF RUSSIAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING
AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON
9TH-11TH SEPTEMBER 2004

This international conference will be held at the University of
Cambridge  and the National Gallery, London, from the afternoon of
Thursday 9th  September to the evening of Saturday 11th September
2004.? It will include  one panel in Cambridge on Thursday, four
panels in Cambridge on Friday, and  one panel in London on
Saturday, when there will also be an opportunity to  view the exhibition
at the National Gallery.? There will be a conference  dinner in
Pembroke College, Cambridge on Friday 10th September, and a wine
reception in the National Gallery to conclude the conference at 5 p.m.
on  Saturday 11th September.

The conference organisers invite proposals for papers on any aspect
of  landscape and the arts in Imperial Russia, and encourage those
which adopt  an interdisciplinary approach.? Each paper should last for
no more than  thirty minutes, and can be delivered in English or
Russian.

The landscape of imperial Russia has long been a potent site of
individual  and collective aspiration in shaping a national identity.? Its
celebration  in folklore, song and literature as symbol and metaphor
for patriotic  sentiment and loyalist pride has been the subject of
considerable research.  In contrast, its production and dissemination
within the visual arts has  been largely unexplored.? The important
Russian landscape exhibition which  will take place in London and
Groningen in 2003-2004, the first major show  of its kind in the West,
provides a timely opportunity to redress this  balance by examining
different readings and visual expressions of landscape  in Imperial
Russian culture.

Landscape has been assigned a variety of roles in the Russian arts: it
has  carried the burden of representation, it has been promoted as a
vehicle for  liberal-reformist aspiration, and it has been appropriated
as an emblem of  conservative Slavophilia, to mention just three.? At
the same time the  genre has been a space of progressive stylistic
experimentation; it has  served as the fulcrum for contentious debate
concerning the worthiness of  indigenous subject matter, and the
authority and authenticity of the  encounter with the 'native'; and it has
been both a forum for national  assertiveness, and a testing ground
for academic and progressive trends in  Western European art.? By
focusing exclusively on landscape or by taking it  as a point of
departure, this conference aims to explore these and other  ideas,
shedding light on the many ways in which representations of the land
reflected and shaped intellectual preoccupations which ranged from
theocratic, aristocratic and democratic interests to artistic and
aesthetic  debates.? Encouraging both an interdisciplinary perspective
and  interventions from social, political, literary, and philosophical
thought,  it will enable internationally recognized scholars of Russian
culture to  expose, question and debate the complex and challenging
contribution which  landscape has made to the Russian arts.

Abstracts for papers should be no longer than 400 words in length,
and  should be submitted to both Dr Rosalind Polly Blakesley (n?e
Gray), at  rpg27 at cam.ac.uk, and Dr David Jackson, at
d.jackson at leeds.ac.uk by 31st  October 2003.? Please also let us
know if you are not offering a paper but  would like to reserve a place
on the conference.? The organisers aim to  respond to all proposals
and finalise the programme by the end of the year.
[Please address questions to Drs. Blakesley or Jackson, on whose
behalf this message is being posted.]

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