Reconsidering Religion in Modern and Contemporary Art: Methods and Approaches

While religious ideas and commitments inform much of modern and contemporary art-making, such sensibilities remain stubbornly under-explored within serious scholarly and art-critical writing. Such hermeneutic reticence is, however, provokingly challenged in recent publications such as Jonathan Anderson, The (In)visibilities of Religion in Contemporary Art (Notre Dame, 2025); Erika Doss, Spiritual Moderns (University of Chicago, 2023); and Bernier and Smith, eds., Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord (Routledge, 2023).

What opportunities, strategies, and methodologies are available to cultivate serious writing that responsibly engages with religious sensibility in contemporary art history? How might we, as chroniclers and interpreters of modern and contemporary art, continue to re-think and re-write a more complete, nuanced story?

This session seeks papers and presentations that consider the current 'state of the field' of art and religion, proposing or engaging methodological approaches that are rigorous enough to provoke and further current scholarly discourse. Special interest will be given to submissions demonstrating a commitment to cultivating sophisticated and theoretically engaged art writing that uncovers religious and spiritual sensibilities in modern and contemporary art.

Case studies; artist incubators; methodologies; theoretical means of interpretation and other means of diversifying and retooling the field of art writing are welcomed.