Jobs & Opportunities » Opportunities

SALON Conference 2026 - Unreliable Lives

Type: Conferences & Symposia [View all]
Posted by: SALON - Society for the Arts of the Long Nineteenth Century
Deadline: Fri, June 12th, 2026

SALON Conference 2026 - Unreliable Lives: Rethinking the Artist’s Biography in the Nineteenth Century

How are artists’ biographies constructed, and how do these narratives shape or distort our understanding of their work?
This one-day international conference at museum Singer Laren (NL) examines biography not as a stable source of meaning, but as a constructed and sometimes unreliable framework that shapes how artists are understood, judged, and received. Focusing on the long nineteenth century - a period that codified the modern image of the artist and entrenched powerful narratives of genius, identity, and reputation - the programme brings together scholars who probe the limits, uses, and distortions of artist biographies.
Across three thematic sessions, the conference addresses key fault lines in the use of biography. The first considers the challenges of absence and access: what happens when artists’ lives must be reconstructed from fragmentary archives, or when the available sources themselves raise ethical concerns? The second turns to canonical figures, asking how problematic aspects of artists’ lives - whether moral, psychological, or ideological - have shaped, and continue to reshape, their reception. The third examines how nineteenth-century models of artistic identity have been retrospectively imposed on earlier artists, transforming their biographies and, in turn, the interpretation of their work.
A keynote lecture by Julie Codell further interrogates the instability of biographical genres and their interpretive stakes. Together, the papers invite a critical reassessment of nineteenth-century models of artistic biography and their afterlives, asking how they continue to shape art history today.

The programme includes three sessions, a keynote lecture, and a visit to the exhibition Masterpieces from Le Havre: Renoir, Monet, Dufy, Matisse & others. Lunch and drinks are also included. 

For the full programme, please see the SALON website.

Tickets: €40,00 (Regular) / €15,00 (Students) on the Singer Laren website.

Posted on Fri, May 15th, 2026
Expires on Fri, June 12th, 2026

CAA is not responsible for the content of listings in the Opportunities section. All postings are subject to review; inappropriate submissions will not be published.