Artist-made Objects of Indeterminate Status and the Catalogue Raisonné

Affiliated Society or Committee Name: Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association
Is every object made by an artist a work of art? Should we, and if so according to what criteria, include in an artist's catalogue raisonné works that exist in a seemingly provisional, unfinished, experimental, or fragmentary state? Or that may have served as designs, models, or studies for works subsequently (or not) realized in a "final" form? Is every doodle a "drawing"? Are unexposed negatives part of a photographer's oeuvre? Is an object artfully made to serve a utilitarian purpose a sculpture or a tool? How are newer media–time-based, digital, or otherwise–changing our understanding of the bounds of a catalogue raisonné? How do scholars identify, categorize, and represent oeuvres that defy easy definitions?

And are these kinds of questions and distinctions even relevant to the work of compiling complete catalogues of historical or contemporary artists' bodies of work? If so, why? Is it possible to formulate a set of "best practices" for how catalogues raisonnés distinguish between art/non-art works made by artists? The panelists will investigate these questions from a variety of practical and philosophical view points, and discuss them in relation to works created by artists in working in a range of media and different time periods.


Field of Study:
United States of America
Great Britain
Europe
Modern (1800-present)
Drawing

Chair:
Susan Cooke,Catalogue Raisonne Scholars Assn -
Discussant:
Chaz Evans,Northwestern University - chazevans@gmail.com

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