Behind the Circulations of Images

The history of images is nothing but a history of their mediums and a history of physical bodies. And hence, it is a history of circulation. As an introduction of this volume, this paper seeks to go behind the circulations of images by combining the fields of cultural, political and geopolitical studies, and by bringing together different methodologies from monographic and formal analysis to digital approaches (quantitative, cartographic, visual). These diversified case studies make it possible to answer three major questions: 1) How do images circulate? 2) Why do images circulate? 3) What does circulation do to an image and, more generally, to people

Bas les masques ! Pour une relecture socio-économique du Montparnasse des années 1920

This paper attempts to reconstruct the Parisian art world of the 1920s through the prism of the social sciences. Geography, sociology and network analysis shed new light on a caricature drawn by Sem, entitled Les Montparnos, which was published in 1929 in L’Illustration. The reconstruction of the artistic field strips away the masks, and leads us to conclude that Sem, the star of the Parisian Belle Epoque, was trying to reverse the stigma of his increasingly marginalized position by mocking a new generation of rising stars—such as Foujita, Man Ray, and Kiki de Montparnasse—who were starting to dominate the Parisian art scene and market

Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre, Enrichissement. Une critique de la marchandise (Paris: Gallimard, 2017)

Book review of Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre, Enrichissement. Une critique de la marchandise (Paris: Gallimard, 2017)

Michael Hutter, The Rise of the Joyful Economy: Artistic Invention and Economic Growth from Brunelleschi to Murakami (London/New York: Routledge, 2015).

Book review of Michael Hutter, The Rise of the Joyful Economy: Artistic Invention and Economic Growth from Brunelleschi to Murakami (London/New York: Routledge, 2015)

From Enemy Asset to National Showcase: France’s Seizure and Circulation of the Matsukata Collection (1944-1958)

Sequestered by the French State as an enemy asset in 1944, Kojiro Matsukata’s collection was used as a national showcase through exhibitions until 1958. Few catalogues were transparent as to the works’ provenance from the collection. When we map and visualize this historical information, a significant contrast appears between the “real” circulation of artworks, as recorded in governmental archives, and the official circulation listed in catalogues. This discrepancy points to a propaganda effort in such a way as to bolster an artistic narrative that was key to French national pride, and studying it can further explain why the French decided to retain certain artworks for their own public collections and to “gift” the others back to Japan

Les rues des tableaux: The Geography of the Parisian Art Market 1815-1955

Building upon a preliminary socioeconomic analysis of the art dealers in Paris between 1815 and 1955 (ARTL@S Bulletin 2, n°2), this paper presents the findings of a spatial study of the Parisian art market in this period. Using serial geographical data drawn from a single, consistent source – the Bottin du commerce – we mapped the spatial evolution of art dealers over 140 years, using a geocoding system with composite locators. The article explores the different spatial dynamics of this market, and seeks to shed light on the links between the evolution of the Parisian economy as a whole and the individual trajectories of its art dealers

Tracking dispersal: auction sales from the Yuanmingyuan loot in Paris in the 1860s

During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China.  The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of government of the Chinese Emperor to the northwest of the Chinese capital. Thousands of these objects – figures up to over a million have been suggested – were brought to Europe and are today in Western museums and private collections.   Little is known about the quantity of objects that reached Europe, about the market mechanisms in the West, the collectors that purchased the artefacts from the Summer Palace, as well as the paths taken by the objects in the years after 1860: which objects arrived in Europe? In whose hands were they at what time? When did they change hands? Where are they today? While it is difficult to trace the marketing of the artefacts sold through dealers – due to the scarcity of available archives –, public auction sales are easier to access. This paper provides a systematic review of all Parisian sales between 1861 and 1869 in which artefacts from the Imperial Summer Palace were sold.  The corresponding catalogues were matched with the minutes of the sales – a specifically French source providing unique information on sellers, buyers and prices of the sold objects.  The complete dataset with the description of artefacts and protagonists is available online

Pricing Opinion and Tastes: The Art Market Through Sentiment Analysis

Art market studies have long relied on econometrics to explain the prices of works through a series of variables, such as the dimensions of the work, its medium, its date, whether or not its creator is alive, etc. However, this quantitative analysis fails to measure the qualitative opinion on the work, that can be found in exhibition or auction catalogues. As a consequence, no evidence is made between the price of an artwork and the critical comments on the latter, even if it seems obvious that such a link exists. This lightning talk aims at filling this gap by introducing Natural Language Processing, and more specifically, sentiment analysis, into econometrics

Information Extraction Workflow for Digitised Entry-based Documents

International audienc

Fragments d'une histoire globale de l'art

International audienceÀ l’heure où l’histoire s’écrit au niveau « mondial », « global » ou encore « transnational », il est indispensable de faire de même en histoire de l’art, en construisant un récit qui ne soit pas centré sur le monde occidental mais qui, au contraire, considère toutes les œuvres à parts égales, dans le temps et dans l’espace. Or, une telle exigence requiert une connaissance à la fois encyclopédique et fine des productions artistiques. Face à l’impossibilité de maîtriser toutes les langues et toutes les cultures, l’ambition d’une « histoire globale de l’art » peut apparaître comme une entreprise démesurée, donc vaine. Au grand récit simplificateur, cet ouvrage préfère la modestie du fragment. Il s’appuie ainsi sur l’analyse intime de cinquante œuvres diversifiées, choisies pour leur caractère « hybride » et il esquisse, par petites touches, une histoire décentrée des productions artistiques du XVIe siècle à nos jours, des beaux-arts au cinéma, en passant par les arts décoratifs et l’architecture