Appel à communication : The Meaning of Prices in the History of Art (CAA, New York, 11-14 février 2015)

CFP: The Meaning of Prices (College Art Association, 103rd Annual Conference, New York, 11-14 Feb 15)
Deadline: May 9, 2014

Panel: The Meaning of Prices

Over the last few decades, price information for art markets of the past has been collected systematically and made accessible in larger aggregates. Against all expectations, this has not resulted in data-intensive and computationally intensive research due to all kinds of methodological and logistical challenges. Various types of regression analysis, for instance, are not used in the humanities, in spite of the fact that art historians critically analyzing “big data” could trigger significant epistemological breakthroughs.This is particularly true when investigating the relationship between prices (as proxy for revealed preferences or “taste”) and various types of value, as well as their relationship to new forms of artistic creation, collecting patterns, buyer preferences, and so forth. While interest in how art is created, financed, distributed, and acquired throughout the centuries is not new, this session aims to solicit new types of questions revolving around the sociocultural formations underlying pricing mechanisms and value systems.

Chairs: Christian Huemer, Getty Research Institute; and Hans van Miegroet, Duke University. Email: chuemer@getty.edu and hvm@duke.edu

For participation requirements and details of the conference, please
see: http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2015CallforParticipation.pdf