Provisional Conference Programme

Art versus Industry?

Leeds City Museum, 23 and 24 March 2012

Friday 23 March 2012

9.45-10.15

Registration

10.15-10.30

Welcome and introductions

10.30-11.30

Lara Kriegel (Indiana University)

Filaments of History: Ladies, Lace, Labour and Nation at the Fin de Siecle

11.30-1.30 Panel one: De-centering the narrative

Lara Eggleton (University of Leeds)

Surface Deceits: Owen Jones and John Ruskin on the Ornament of the Alhambra

Sally Tuckett (University of Edinburgh)

Colouring the Nation: Scottish Turkey-Red Design and Manufacture

Natasha Eaton (University College London)

Subaltern Colour? Art, Industry and Colonialism in Britain and India

Renate Dohmen (University of Louisiana at Lafayette)

The Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883-4: A Differenced Vision of the Great Exhibition?

1.30-2.30: Lunch

2.30-4.30 Panel two: Labour, class and invention

Jasmine Allen (University of York)

The Status of Stained Glass at the International Exhibitions

Anne-Marie Millim (University of Luxembourg)

“A substitute for moonlight”: The Cultural Value of Mining in The Graphic (1870s)

Frances Robertson (Glasgow School of Art)

Crank-Pin Tracks and Corinthian Columns: Engineers and Draughtsmen as Visual Technicians

Ben Russell (Science Museum)

James Watt’s Workshop: A Nexus Between Art and Industry

4.30-4.45: Coffee

4.45-5.45

Tom Gretton (University College London)

Art as Hot News

Saturday 24 March 2012

9.30-10.30

Colin Trodd (University of Manchester)

Affinity and Alienation: Civility, Barbarism and Discourses of Design Culture, 1862-1894

10.30-12.30 Panel three: Making and mechanical perception

Ann Compton (University of Glasgow)

Building a Better Class of Craftsman? Re-examining Issues of Education, Craftsmanship and Professional Practice in Sculpture and Related Trades, c. 1880-1925

Gabriel Williams (University of York)

tbc

Nicole Bush (Northumbria University)

Mechanical Patterns: The Role of Brewster’s Kaleidoscope in the Age of Morris and the Machine

Patrizia Di Bello (Birkbeck)

‘Camera-Medusa’: Stereoscopic Photographs of Statuettes

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-2.30 Panel four: The manufacture, circulation and exhibition of electrotypes

Alistair Grant (University of Sussex, Victoria and Albert Museum)

Galvanic Engraving in Relief: The Origins of the Art of Electro-Metallurgy

Angus Patterson (Victoria and Albert Museum)

For the Promotion of Art: The Formation and Influence of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Electrotype Collection

2.30-3.30

Steve Edwards (Open University)

Picture Capitalism

3.30-4.00 Coffee

4.00-5.00 Roundtable discussion and closing remarks

£15 [£10 concessions] for both days. Information on registration will be posted on http://artvindustry.blogspot.com/ shortly, we hope to see you there!

Bramham, Baroque and Blow.

The opportunity to visit a lesser known country mansion arose yesterday and I was spurred on by the vague recollection that the pile had a connection with Detmar Blow the architect. Detmar has always been a hero of mine due to his 'lame duck' nature and a history of being simply forgotten. His career paralleled Lutyens for a number of years, but once Bendor and the Westminster cabal closed ranks his reputation entered free fall.

However, back in time we go to 1906. Bramham Park had lain derelict for almost a century, but had been resurrected in part by Blow and his crew, who were able to produce a Baroque effect using Edwardian techniques. Although a passionate Arts and Crafts supporter, the enigma of Detmar was that he would happily move to other architectural styles especially if persuaded by an aristo! In fact, he built All Saints Church, Thorney Hill, from scratch and in a full-on Baroque style. [See smaller Photo].

I'll not attempt a verbal description of Bramham Park Mansion as I'm reading Edmund De Waal's linguistic picture of the Hotel Ephrussi at present, and will not get anywhere near that league. However, I hope my snapshots will convey some of the atmosphere of the place.

Detmar's internal work has a look of B&Q about it[!!!] for it's just too machine made and has lost the organic feel of surviving baroque details. Strangely, our guide failed to mention my hero, and so later I chatted with a gardener who reckoned that this was par for the course as the current owners are keen to promote the early 18th. Century origins rather than more recent additions. Blow also designed an elaborate Rose garden recently obliterated! There are, too, obelisks and a chapel.

I have added more photographs here but am unsure where they will appear.

Finally, the fireplace. I have included this item as it is the only time that the Arts and Crafts feel came to me although it is not obvious, and possibly meant to be nothing of the sort. How could Detmar do all this cribbing without some his passion rising to the surface. I like to think so.