We are thrilled to welcome 35 historians, artists, and theorists to Athens, Greece from Thursday 26th October to Saturday 28th October 2023 to explore unexpected and unexplored trajectories of the colour white in art history and theory.
The programme consists of 22 papers and two keynote lectures, by Prof. Ines Weizman and Prof. Jeff Werner.
Papers at the Deep White symposium:
Lasse Hodne: Classical White: Uncovering New Histories of the Legacy and Reception of the Idea of a White Antiquity
Abigail Lapin Dardashti: Negotiating White Brasilia: Diplomacy, Race, and African Architecture in Brazil’s Senegalese Embassy Building, 1964-1977
Amalie Skovmøller: The Whiteness of White Marble in the 19th Century
Ruggero Longo: Gleaming White. A Newly Discovered Medieval Artificial Lithotype
Katia Papandreopoulou: White Statues in the “White City”: Greece’s Participation in the World’s Columbian Exhibition of Chicago, 1893
Susanne Bauer: The Making of a Default Setting: White Walls and Modern Architecture
Maria Rogucka: Strzemiński’s Chromatic White: Deconstructing Utopian Vision of Unism Theory
MaryClaire Pappas: White Bodies, Colorful Paintings: Henrik Sørensen's Color Theory and the Genealogy of Scandinavian Modernism
Marko Kiessel and Jonathan Stubbs: From Utopian Aspiration to Dystopian Austerity: The Uses and Meanings of the Colour White in Science Fiction Films
Wolfgang Hottner: “Absolute Turbidity”: White as a Primordial Phenomenon in Goethe’s Theory of Colors
Daniela Roberts: Gothic White: Georgian Interior Designed through a Classical Lens
Dominik Lengyel and Catherine Toulouse: The Unexpectedly Rich Dimension of a Monochrome Dimension
Joris van Gastel: O bianco marmo eletto» Sculptural Aesthetics and Body Politics in Renaissance Italy
Lauren Kroiz: White Marble and Women: Adelaide Johnson’s Suffrage Monument
Åsa Bahrati Larsson: Staging Whiteness: Ethnological Exhibitions in the Nordic Region
Nikos Pegioudis: Black Skin, White Marble: Portraits of an Afro-Greek in Late Nineteenth-Century Greek Visual Arts
Hanne Hammer Stien: Correspondances of Polar White
Helene Birkeli: The Valley of the Norsemen: Porcelain and whiteness in Denmark-Norway
Øystein Sjåstad: Holy Cow: The Meaning of Milk in Nationalist Imaginary
Marte Johnslien: The Alchemy of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2)
Kshitija Mruthyunjaya: The Veil Reveal
Anne-Helen Mydland: 1000 Years of White: A Story of the Public and Intimate Companionship of Porcelain
Read all abstracts here:
We are looking forward to three days of exploring questions such as: Which stories of white may open up conflicting symbolic and political meanings about white colour in a global world? What are the historical preconditions for connecting white with notions such as purity, progress, and utopianism? What are the ambivalent myths and ideologies about this achromatic non-colour not featured on the colour wheel?