The year 2021 will mark 100 years since the death of the Czech-born Viennese art historian Max Dvořák (1874–1921). After he moved from the university in Prague to Vienna University in 1894, he went on to become one of the most eminent art historians in early 20th-century Central and Eastern Europe, transforming the method of the Vienna School of Art History when the region was at the start of a new political order, and with an influence on art history comparable to that of his contemporaries Aby Warburg or Heinrich Wölfflin. He became an associate professor at the University of Vienna in 1905 and a full professor in 1909. Researching the influence of his thinking on art history a century after his premature death is therefore crucial in order to obtain a better understanding of the Central and Eastern European art-historical phenomenon known as the Vienna School of Art History.

For the conference we are organising to mark this anniversary, we welcome papers on the following topics:

  • Biographical research on Max Dvořák, which can include subjects such as family matters, recollections from his contemporaries, his correspondence, and archival documents.
  • Topics and interests addressed in Max Dvořák’s scholarly work, his sources of inspiration, comparisons with other art-historical approaches to the same topics, possible intellectual innovations made by him, and his eventual influence on later art-historical research on the same topics.
  • Max Dvořák’s pupils, followers, and contemporaries, their relationship with Dvořák, their art-historical research, whether based on or distinguishing itself from Dvořák’s, the influence and fate of Dvořák’s pupils and followers in the historiography of art history, including both past and present praise and criticism of Max Dvořák’s art history.
  • Max Dvořák’s method of art history, its origins, inspirations, influence, and limitations, and the theoretical, philosophical, and cultural aspects of Dvořák’s art history.
  • Competing art-historical traditions that existed in Max Dvořák’s time and the relationship between them.

Papers on other topics that are in keeping with the focus of the conference are also welcomed. The languages of the conference will be German and English. The conference papers will be collected and published in the Journal of Art Historiography, as were the papers of the previous conference held in 2019 and titled ‘The Influence of the Vienna School of Art History before and after 1918‘, see Issue No. 21/2019.The plenary lecture will be delivered by
Prof. Dr. Hans Aurenhammer (Institute of Art History, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)

Each draft paper submitted must include:

  • The title of the paper
  • A summary (max. 1800 characters in length)
  • The author’s name
  • The author’s workplace
  • The author’s contact details (most importantly an e-mail address) for communication with the organisers

Please submit the draft of your paper complete with the information requested above directly to [email protected] no later than 30 June 2020.

Doc. PhDr. Tomáš Winter, Ph.D.
Director of the Institute of Art History Czech Academy of Sciences

Prof. PhDr. Tomáš Hlobil, CSc.
PhDr. Tomáš Murár, Ph.D.
Organising Committee