The Rossettis: In Relation

Conference to be held at Tate Britain on 15th and 16th June, 2023.

Tate Britain’s forthcoming exhibition The Rossettis suggests a different model for thinking about how artists’ careers and lives are shaped – not as the singular and self-contained subjects often presented by a monographic approach – but one that is relational, collaborative and part of familial and professional networks. While the exhibition is centred around Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal, the conference will use this model as methodology, exploring how the work of art and life are enmeshed. We encourage interventions that look at and go beyond these artists to think through intermedial relationships between the poetic, pictorial, musical and decorative arts. The Rossettis exhibition also prompts discussion of the relationship of the arts to activism, organising, politics and labour. Contemporary artists and writers continue to draw on the work of these artists, directly and obliquely. What does it mean to think about the Rossettis (plural) today?

We invite presentations around, but not limited to, the following topics:

• art work, life work
• families, networks, structures
• collaborating, collaborations
• emotive powers, effect
• radicalism, counterculture
• relationships, relations, relatability

Presentations can take the form of talks, visual essays, performances or other suggested formats.

Submission Details

Please submit the following by 11.59pm (GMT) on Monday 6 March 2023 listing “The Rossettis” as the subject line to: [email protected]

• A two-hundred-word abstract written in English outlining how you propose to contribute to the event (for example, do you plan to give a presentation of a digital resource; a paper discussing the topic from a theoretical or methodological standpoint; or another form of contribution?)
• Abstracts should be accompanied by a biography or biographies of approximately one hundred words (please do not send CVs)
• Incomplete or late submissions will not be considered
• Successful contributors at the conference selected through this open call will be paid a fee of £150 for their contribution

All reasonable travel and accommodation costs will be covered. If there is any relevant information that you would like to share with us, such as required adjustments or access needs, please do let us know when you submit and we will do our best to support these.

This is a collaboration between Tate Britain, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the History of Art Department at the University of York.