 ICDAD

Submission deadline: 15 May 2023

“Ornament is not only produced by criminals; it itself commits a crime,” So said architect and designer Adolf Loos in his 1910 lecture-turned-essay “Ornament and Crime,” where he described the effort in designing and creating ornaments as superfluous and wasteful and helped to set the stage for the minimalist, stripped-down forms that would shape modern architecture and design for much of the twentieth century. More than fifty years later, postmodern designers rejected the strict functionalism of modern design, with Robert Venturi declaring, “more is more, less is a bore,” and Ettore Sottsass poetically describing decoration as “a state of mind, an unusual perception, a ritual whisper.”

 The debate over ornament—what is its purpose, what should it look like, how should it be applied, and is it even necessary at all—chronologically and geographically transcends any of these figures and is in fact as old as the field of decorative arts itself. Skilled craftspeople have been producing ornament-laden decorative arts for more than a millennia. Throughout the world, cultures have developed complex relationships to ornament, making it an ideal topic for ICDAD’s 2023 annual meeting. 

This year’s ICDAD conference invites papers that consider the many dimensions of ornament and its multiple roles in decorative arts and design. For instance, what is its role today? How have relationships to decoration evolved over periods of time?  What are its social and political functions? Does ornament enhance or obscure meaning and use? How do different cultures address ornament and decoration, and where have they served as a connector between communities? How does decoration function in global art history, and how might the approaches taken by artists and makers in non-western countries illuminate alternative relationships to ornament? 

Lisbon is an interesting site for this productive dialogue; a city marked by its centuries-old tradition of decorative tile as well as gilded and polychrome wood carving. Lisbon is also the home of present-day designers rethinking associations to material and aesthetics. The ICDAD meeting in Lisbon will take full advantage of this fertile ground, visiting significant historical sites and museums throughout the city and the surroundings while engaging with contemporary collections and makers. 

The after conference tour shall be to Coimbra and Porto, in the north of Portugal, on 13 and 14 October.

For information on how to apply please click here.

ICOM Prague 2022 is almost upon us! The ICDAD programme has been finalized, and is available below. We thank all applicants for their abstracts! All three ICDAD sessions will be presented both online and on-site. If you are considering joining, please do so! Registration is still open.
 
You can find further programme information here: https://prague2022.icom.museum/committees-meetings and here: https://icomprague2022.gcon.me/programme. Furthermore, enrich your Prague experience by participating in excursions to member institutions within the Czech Republic! See here for more information: https://prague2022.icom.museum/excursions.

ICDAD PROGRAMME

22 August 2022, 16:00–17:30 - ICDAD Session

Session Moderator: Anika Reineke

The Art of Collecting and Exploring the Collection: From Past Crafts to Its Design for the Future
Nirit Shalev Khalifa
curator, Art historian
Yad Ben-Zvi Institute, Museum council, Ben Gurion university , Har Hadar, Israel

Collecting Ideas: Historic Objects for Contemporary Audiences
Shoshana Resnikoff
Curator
The Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach, Florida, United States

What is missing? On the power of NOT collecting and NOT exhibiting.
Claudia Banz
Curator Design
Kunstgewerbemuseum - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

23 August 2022, 14:30 – 16:00 – ICDAD/COSTUME/GLASS Joint Session

Session Moderator: Kai Lobjakas

Polish Design Polish Designers. The Power of Collection
Anna Śliwa
Curator
Muzeum Miasta Gdyni (Gdynia City Museum), Gdynia, Poland

The Influence of Martin Battersby
Martin Pel
Curator of Fashion and Textiles
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, United Kingdom

The Pforzheimer Collection of Studio Glass joins the Peabody Essex Museum’s Two Century Glass Collection
Sarah Chasse
Associate Curator
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, United States

23 August 2022, 16:30–18:00 – ICDAD Session

Session Moderator: Melissa Rinne

From room to portrait. The furniture in the photography and painting collections of the National Palace of Ajuda
Maria Jose Gaivao Tavares
Furniture Curator
National Palace of Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal

Imagining Guangzhou: James Drummond's Chinese Painted Wallpaper at the Peabody Essex Museum
Lan Morgan
Assistant Curator
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, United States

A palace for everybody: the afterlife of decorative arts
Maria Isabel Baldasarre
National Director of Museums
National Ministry of Culture (Ministerio de Cultura de la Nacion), Buenos Aires, Argentina

The power of wallpaper: turning a farm into a palace and a modest collection into one of international recognition
Helen Bieri Thomson
Head
Swiss National Museum - Château de Prangins, Prangins, Switzerland

25 August 2022, 9:00-18.00 – Off-Site Meeting

Uměleckoprůmyslové museum v Praze / Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Address: 17. listopadu 2/2, 110 00 Praha

· Round Table Discussion
· Visit to the museum's newly built depository building
· Dinner at UMP

We are looking forward to seeing you in Prague!

The call for papers for ICDAD's individual sessions and joint session (with ICOM Glass and Costume) at the Prague 2022 General Conference is now open! ICDAD's sessions will be held on 22, 23, and 25 August, in both hybrid and in-person-only settings. We welcome session papers that address the power of collecting as a formative or transformational force within decorative arts and design collections. The deadline for submission is 31 March 2022. 

The full CFP is below: 

Get ready for Prague! The Czech Republic will be hosting the 26th ICOM General Conference, a triennial gathering of the entire ICOM community, in August of 2022.

ICDAD will be hosting our own general meeting there and will also be joining with two other international committees, Glass and Costume, for joint sessions. Stay tuned for a Call for Papers in the coming weeks, and for more information on the broader general conference schedule, visit the ICOM Prague 2022 website. 

[ICOM Prague 2022 graphic identity by Studio Colmo, image courtesy ICOM Czech Republic]

All start times are listed for Paris and New York, respectively:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21

16:00 Paris // 10:00 AM USA Eastern

Opening Remarks

Session 1: Creating History

Lieske Huits — “Modern Ornaments” or “Models of Ancient Production”? Egyptian Revival Jewelry from the Brogden Album

Martina Pall — The Revival of Chivalry in the 19th Century, Using the Example of a Room Stove

Christian Hörack — The Goldsmith Studio Bossard in Lucerne, a Swiss Contribution in the Age of Historicism

17:30 Paris // 11:30 AM USA Eastern

Session 2: ICDAD General Meeting

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22

14:00 Paris // 8:00 AM USA Eastern

Session 1: Material

Ludmila Budrina — Russian Tradition of the Artistic Application of Hard Stone (“pietra dura”)

Anaïs Alchus & Edouard Papet — Reconsidering an Icon of Revivals: the Life-Size Biscoúit Porcelain Statue of Bernard Palissy by Gille Jeune (1860)

Samantha Coleman — The Viennese Enamel Revival Objects in the Medeiros e Almeida Collection

15:30 Paris // 9:30 AM USA Eastern

Session 2: Cultural Identity

Virginie Desrante — Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory Heritage in the 19th Century: New Thoughts on Néo-Sèvres by Sèvres

Mark Sagona — Baroque Revival Currents in the Decorative Arts in Malta,1870-1900

Susan Rawles — Home-Making: Nostalgia and The Country House Style

10:45 Eastern/16:45 Paris

Session 3: 20th and 21st Century Revivals

Melinda Farkasdy — Progressive Retrospectivity in Hungarian Ceramics

Kim Mawhinney — Parian Porcelain to Political Power: The Influence of the Belleek Pottery on Contemporary Artists

Christian Roden — A Museum Makes Landfall: The Kungsholm, The American Swedish Historical Museum, and the Rise of Swedish Design in America

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23

8:00 Eastern USA/14:00 Paris

Session 1: National Romanticism

Cristina Neiva Correia — Revivals Fit for the King of Portugal: A Pair of Vases with Celebrities of the 15th and 16th centuries, by Sèvres

Ludmila Dementieva — "Encyclopedia" of Styles in the Objects of Russian Artistic Metal from the Collection of State Historical Museum

Anna-Sophie Laug — Rural Revival 1900: Vernacular Aesthetics in European Decorative Arts Between Historicism and Art Nouveau