To support the 2009 international and interdisciplinary conference “Starting from Scratch: The Arts,
Culture, and Politics in the Immediate Aftermath of World War II,” created as an academic counterpart to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon exhibition Starting from Scratch: American and European Art in the Aftermath of World War II (1945–49). The conference examines the years between 1944 and 1949, a moment of intensive redefining of artistic practices in Europe and the United States.