Marcel Broodthaers and America
Princeton University
East Pyne Hall
Chancellor Way @ 122 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
FREE and open to the public
The Broodthaers Society of America is pleased to present Marcel Broodthaers and America, a two-day conference hosted by Princeton University in collaboration with Ghent University, Belgium. The conference has been organized in honor of the artist's centenary. In addition to scholarship from young scholars throughout North America and Europe, it will feature newly discovered publications and artworks related to the subject of Marcel Broodthaers and America that have never been presented before in the United States.
Indeed, for all the banal and erudite references used by Broodthaers—from mussel shells and industrial signage to Aesop and Mallarmé—America is the one oft-cited reference in his writing and artworks that he never experienced firsthand. This lack of empirical knowledge lends an element of fantasy to Broodthaers' idea of America, and these speculations are the likely reason why it remains one of the least examined aspects of his work. Whatever the case may be, Broodthaers must have based his idea of America on something. This conference promises to critically examine, both explicitly and obliquely, new theories on what that something might be. The presentation schedule will be as follows:
DAY 1
CAROLIN MEISTER, “Marcel Broodthaers: Painting, Entertainment, and an Unknown Film”
Wednesday, October 9, 4:30 – 6:00pm
East Pyne rm 010
WELCOME RECEPTION
6:00 – 7:30pm
East Pyne rm 100, Upper Hyphen
DAY 2
HANNAH BRUCKMÜLLER, “Marcel Broodthaers’ Father Figures”
Respondent: Simon Wu
Thursday, October 10, 11:00am – 12noon
Chancellor Green Rotunda (adjacent to East Pyne)
WELCOME LUNCH
12:00-1:00pm
East Pyne rm 100, Upper Hyphen
MARCEL BROODTHAERS AND AMERICA: A ROUNDTABLE
Sam Shapiro, Margaux van Uytvanck, and Stefaan Vervoort
Moderated by Joe Scanlan
East Pyne rm 010
1:00 – 2:30pm
SAM SHAPIRO
"An Obedient Material": Marcel Broodthaers and American Art Museums in the 1970s”
MARGAUX VAN UYTVANCK
“Marcel Broodthaers and Jean Toche: Notes on a Transatlantic Friendship”
STEFAAN VERVOORT
“Marcel Broodthaers, Journalist”
BREAK
2:30 – 3:00pm
TREVOR STARK
“The Object of a Prohibition": Marcel Broodthaers at the Poem’s End”
East Pyne rm 010, 3:00 – 4:00pm
RAF WOLLAERT, “Voyage extraordinaire: Marcel Broodthaers in New York”
East Pyne rm 010, 4:00 – 5:30pm
PARTICIPATING SCHOLARS
HANNAH BRUCKMÜLLER is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the New Design University, St. Pölten, Austria. Her research focuses on intersections between art, literature, and publication practices, combining underrepresented archival material, critical historiography, and feminist thought.
CAROLIN MEISTER is a Whitney J. Oates Short-Term Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, for 2024-25. She is a Professor and Chair of Art History at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, where she served as Vice Rector from 2017 to 2023.
JOE SCANLAN is a Professor of Visual Art at Princeton and the Founding Director of the Broodthaers Society of America. Recent exhibitions and publications related to Marcel Broodthaers include Save the Furniture! (2024), New Open Letters (2023), and Confessions of the Century and Laziness and Marcel Broodthaers (both 2021).
SAMUEL SHAPIRO is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and a curatorial research assistant at the Princeton University Art Museum. His dissertation is titled "Confrontation and Collaboration: American Artists and Museums in the 1970s."
TREVOR STARK is Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Total Expansion of the Letter: Avant-Garde Art and Language After Mallarmé (MIT Press/October Books, 2020).
MARGAUX VAN UYTVANCK holds a PhD in Art History from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her doctoral research focused on Marcel Broodthaers’ professional networks in Brussels. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University and a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation.
STEFAAN VERVOORT is a Postdoctoral Researcher and founding member of the research group KB45 (Art in Belgium Since 1945) at the Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies, Ghent University. He is curator of the research exhibition Marcel Broodthaers – The Architect is Absent at CIVA, Brussels (2025) and author of the synonymous book forthcoming from Sternberg Press.
RAF WOLLAERT is a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp and a Fulbright scholar. Since 2019, he has coedited the LP edition Marcel Broodthaers: La Lumière Manifeste and organized an international symposium on Broodthaers’ films. Marcel Broodthaers and Film: A Second on Eternity, a collection of essays coedited with Stephen Jacobs, will be released later this fall.
SIMON WU ‘17 is a writer and a PhD candidate at Yale University. His first book, a collection of essays titled Dancing on My Own, was published in June.
East Pyne Hall
Chancellor Way @ 122 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
FREE and open to the public
The Broodthaers Society of America is pleased to present Marcel Broodthaers and America, a two-day conference hosted by Princeton University in collaboration with Ghent University, Belgium. The conference has been organized in honor of the artist's centenary. In addition to scholarship from young scholars throughout North America and Europe, it will feature newly discovered publications and artworks related to the subject of Marcel Broodthaers and America that have never been presented before in the United States.
Indeed, for all the banal and erudite references used by Broodthaers—from mussel shells and industrial signage to Aesop and Mallarmé—America is the one oft-cited reference in his writing and artworks that he never experienced firsthand. This lack of empirical knowledge lends an element of fantasy to Broodthaers' idea of America, and these speculations are the likely reason why it remains one of the least examined aspects of his work. Whatever the case may be, Broodthaers must have based his idea of America on something. This conference promises to critically examine, both explicitly and obliquely, new theories on what that something might be. The presentation schedule will be as follows:
DAY 1
CAROLIN MEISTER, “Marcel Broodthaers: Painting, Entertainment, and an Unknown Film”
Wednesday, October 9, 4:30 – 6:00pm
East Pyne rm 010
WELCOME RECEPTION
6:00 – 7:30pm
East Pyne rm 100, Upper Hyphen
DAY 2
HANNAH BRUCKMÜLLER, “Marcel Broodthaers’ Father Figures”
Respondent: Simon Wu
Thursday, October 10, 11:00am – 12noon
Chancellor Green Rotunda (adjacent to East Pyne)
WELCOME LUNCH
12:00-1:00pm
East Pyne rm 100, Upper Hyphen
MARCEL BROODTHAERS AND AMERICA: A ROUNDTABLE
Sam Shapiro, Margaux van Uytvanck, and Stefaan Vervoort
Moderated by Joe Scanlan
East Pyne rm 010
1:00 – 2:30pm
SAM SHAPIRO
"An Obedient Material": Marcel Broodthaers and American Art Museums in the 1970s”
MARGAUX VAN UYTVANCK
“Marcel Broodthaers and Jean Toche: Notes on a Transatlantic Friendship”
STEFAAN VERVOORT
“Marcel Broodthaers, Journalist”
BREAK
2:30 – 3:00pm
TREVOR STARK
“The Object of a Prohibition": Marcel Broodthaers at the Poem’s End”
East Pyne rm 010, 3:00 – 4:00pm
RAF WOLLAERT, “Voyage extraordinaire: Marcel Broodthaers in New York”
East Pyne rm 010, 4:00 – 5:30pm
PARTICIPATING SCHOLARS
HANNAH BRUCKMÜLLER is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the New Design University, St. Pölten, Austria. Her research focuses on intersections between art, literature, and publication practices, combining underrepresented archival material, critical historiography, and feminist thought.
CAROLIN MEISTER is a Whitney J. Oates Short-Term Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, for 2024-25. She is a Professor and Chair of Art History at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, where she served as Vice Rector from 2017 to 2023.
JOE SCANLAN is a Professor of Visual Art at Princeton and the Founding Director of the Broodthaers Society of America. Recent exhibitions and publications related to Marcel Broodthaers include Save the Furniture! (2024), New Open Letters (2023), and Confessions of the Century and Laziness and Marcel Broodthaers (both 2021).
SAMUEL SHAPIRO is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and a curatorial research assistant at the Princeton University Art Museum. His dissertation is titled "Confrontation and Collaboration: American Artists and Museums in the 1970s."
TREVOR STARK is Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Total Expansion of the Letter: Avant-Garde Art and Language After Mallarmé (MIT Press/October Books, 2020).
MARGAUX VAN UYTVANCK holds a PhD in Art History from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her doctoral research focused on Marcel Broodthaers’ professional networks in Brussels. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University and a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation.
STEFAAN VERVOORT is a Postdoctoral Researcher and founding member of the research group KB45 (Art in Belgium Since 1945) at the Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies, Ghent University. He is curator of the research exhibition Marcel Broodthaers – The Architect is Absent at CIVA, Brussels (2025) and author of the synonymous book forthcoming from Sternberg Press.
RAF WOLLAERT is a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp and a Fulbright scholar. Since 2019, he has coedited the LP edition Marcel Broodthaers: La Lumière Manifeste and organized an international symposium on Broodthaers’ films. Marcel Broodthaers and Film: A Second on Eternity, a collection of essays coedited with Stephen Jacobs, will be released later this fall.
SIMON WU ‘17 is a writer and a PhD candidate at Yale University. His first book, a collection of essays titled Dancing on My Own, was published in June.