Call for Papers
Deadline for paper proposals 15 May 2026
Aby Warburg, André Malraux and Pablo Picasso were fascinated in their lifetime by the persistence and metamorphoses of images and the inheritance of world art. Today, Malraux’s musée imaginaire or ‘museum without walls’ extends to the virtual universe of images. Throughout 2026 events are taking place internationally to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of André Malraux, the adventurer, writer and first French Minister of Culture. The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study and the Courtauld Institute, University of London, together with the Musée national Picasso-Paris, are celebrating this occasion with a conference to be held on 4-5 December, 2026.
Warburg and Malraux expert Georges Didi-Huberman (EHESS, Paris) is a confirmed speaker.
Subjects might include:
- Aby Warburg as precursor
- Cultural restitution and the global ‘museum without walls’
- Re-readings from the viewpoint of postcolonial theory
- The global culture of image circulation
- Focussed studies, such as Picasso’s exchanges with Malraux, commemorated in Malraux’s La tête d’obsidienne, 1974 (Picasso’s Mask, 1976)
- Contemporary responses by artists such as Dennis Adams or Goshka Macuga
Papers should aim at 15-20 minutes for delivery, in English, with further time for questions.
Conference dates: 4-5 December 2026
Locations: The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, and the Courtauld Institute, University of London.
Paper proposals to be sent to the conference convenors: Professor Sarah Wilson (sarah.wilson@courtauld.ac.uk) and Dr Devika Singh (devika.singh@courtauld.ac.uk)
