Call for contributions / Study day
Artists and their objects : a sensitive and memorial approach 

Monday 22^th of April 2024
Bourdelle museum (Paris), room Gaston Toussaint. Open entry until filled to capacity

Joint collaboration : Bourdelle museum (Paris), Paris Musées, Delacroix museum (Paris)

Many art museums preserve artists’ objects, sometimes on exhibition but mostly in its reserves. Valued by the public, the artists’ objects open a path to a sensitive and subjective approach that breaks down the frontiers of time : they bring together yesterday’s artist with today’s visitor. Despite their modest features at times, they fascinate, interrogate, and even move us…

If we can clearly identify the objects linked to the creative process (palette, tools, …), others are less known : they testify to the artist’s life and interests (clothes, personal objects), sometimes religiously preserved by the artist himself or by his rightful heirs (family objects, various souvenirs…).

This study day presents itself as a continuation of a first session which was coordinated by the Delacroix museum in September of 2022 and entitled : « Fetichism ? Artist’s objects in museums ». In accordance with the thematical exhibitions « Bourdelle. The objects’ memory » (April 3^rd – August 18^th 2024, Bourdelle museum) and « Ingres and Delacroix. Artists’ objects » (March 20^th – June 10^th 2024, Delacroix museum), this new study day offers the possibility to pursue the reflection on the rich subject of artists’ objects.

After a first session which was largely consecrated to monographic studies, this session suggests an exploration of the following axis :

•  The relationship between artists and their objects
•   The status of relics that certain objects obtain 
•   The objects in the museum : knowledge and aknowledgment, the reception of the public, cultural interpretation
•   The artist’s object in a sociological and multidisciplinary perspective
•    The artist’s object in literature.

The scientific comittee will prefer the projects that tend to explore these thematics and enlarge the study to include various artists. The communications should be 20 minutes long, ideally in French or, by default, in English (no means of translation will be made available). With the approval of the participant, the communication will be filmed and shared on our institutional platforms.

A resume and a brief synopsis (2000 letters) shall be sent to the following address : margaux.wymbs@paris.fr
Final date for application : September 20^th 2023.