Art and Desire

On the one hand desire itself is a formidable impetus for making art: depicting desirable bodies; representing sexual thought, instincts and experiences; expressions of love, lust and compulsion are all prominent and endlessly recurring themes throughout the history of art. How is desire represented, and what drives artists to represent in the first place? On the other hand, there is the desire to own: either through sight, knowledge or physical acquisition, and this desire is undoubtedly the driving force of the discipline of art history. How collections are formed, what we pay attention to, and the compulsion to look are all indispensable considerations when asking how art history was, and still is being, formed. The New Voices postgraduate conference, now in its seventh year, is organised by the Student Members' Committee of the Association of Art Historians. This one-day conference offers an opportunity for postgraduate students to present their research in an informal, supportive and stimulating atmosphere. To book your place for this conference please click visit http://www.aah.org.uk/post/102. Tickets are £5 per person. Delegates must be current members of the AAH. Visit http://www.aah.org.uk/page/2762to join.