History of Art

The deparment is pleased to announce two opportunities for PhD studentships:

Departmental Research Studentship in History of Art

The 2012-2013 lectures will be given by Rachel Haidu (University of Rochester) on Thursdays 9 and 16 May, 2013 at 6pm.

Organised with generous support from UCL Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art and Rainhart Gallery.

This one-day symposium invites researchers and graduate students to examine the uses - and limitations - of sabotage in Latin American contemporary art and attempts to place the notion within a larger reflection on the politics of the image, the aesthetics of violence, the tensions between art and spectacle and the position and responsibility of the artist in the face of political turmoil or systemic injustice.

Organized with generous support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, ‘Retracing America: Modernism After Paul Strand’ invites ten scholars of American modernism and mass media to reconsider the work and legacy of Paul Strand.

The Eco-Aesthetics conference marks the release of Third Text no. 120 (January 2013), dedicated to the subject of “Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology,” guest-edited by TJ Demos.

This symposium focuses on Eva Hesse’s reliefs and drawings made during the year she spent in Germany in 1965. It looks in depth at the role of drawing in Hesse’s work and at the pivotal position of her colored reliefs for her later sculpture.

UCL History of Art postgraduates have recently launched an online media gallery. The International New Media Gallery specialises in contemporary moving image artwork. They currently have a show by photographer Corinne Silva, with catalogue contributions by UCL postgraduates. An in-conversation will be held between the artist and UCL’s Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art in December.

What is the potential of interpretation in the visual field and are there limits?
The current proliferation of images has led to worries about the power of the
visual, but not necessarily to innovative approaches. While the tendency of art
history to rely on the subject in its explanatory modes (in particular the artist as
subject) has long reached an impasse, the image continues to be a site of
self-affirmation rather than of critical and creative engagement. Even recent
attempts to endow the image with a more active role, including the productive
notion of the self-aware image, have brought with them problems of agency.
How can we shift the discussion without turning the image itself into a subject?

Moving Images full details

Our new research seminar Past Imperfect opens with its first event on 9 October 2012, 6.15 pm

Dr Robert Mills, Lecturer in Medieval Art

UCL History of Art PhD student, Kathleen Froyen will be seen using the XRF instrument to look at  possible Degas with Philip Mould on this programme.

The Department is pleased to announce that it has been awarded one of six Provost’s Research Studentships in the Humanities to begin in the academic year 2012-13. The scheme is designed to create intellectual vitality and renewal throughout arts and humanities departments at UCL by attracting outstanding PhD students and to provide them with teaching experience, a valuable part of their development and preparation for an academic career.

The Aesthetics and Politics of Specimens on Display

17 and 18 May, 2012

Congratulations to UCL History of Art MA student Conor Kissane on winning the 2012 AAH Dissertation Prize

Full details

The department is happy to announce the Frances Stracey Awards for prospective UCL History of Art MA students.

Monday 17 October 6pm
Gustav Tuck Lecture Theatre

Presented by UCL Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art in partnership with Hauser and Wirth

Further details and video

AHRC Collaborative Award for a PhD Studentship has been awarded to UCL and Tate Modern to begin September 2011:

The CSCA in collaboration with the V&A Museum is pleased to announce this symposium organised to coincide with the exhibition Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography

Further Details

"Talk by Mark Dion on My Taxidermy Taxonomy"

We would like to invite you to the opening event of the AHRC research network "The Culture of Preservation" this Thursday, 12 May 2011

UCL Centre for the Study of Contemporary art and the V & A present artists, Jodi Bieber, Pieter Hugo, Sabelo Mlangeni, Santu Mofokeng, Terry Kurgan, Roelof Van Wyk and Graeme Williams in conversation with exhibition curator Tamar Garb.

The Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at UCL is holding a symposium to examine Ida Applebroog’s work since the 1970s to coincide with the first major exhibition of her work to be held in this country at Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row. Speakers include Jo Applin, Jon Bird, Julia Bryan-Wilson and Elisabeth Leibovici. Ida Applebroog will be in conversation with Tamar Garb. Event chaired by Briony Fer.

This symposium on 1960s Italian art practices will take place on Saturday 12th March 2011 at the Italian Cultural Institute. The event has been organised and supported through the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at UCL and the Research Department of the London Consortium and will coincide with the exhibition of Pino Pascali held at the Camden Arts Centre throughout Spring 2011

The Granddaughter's Generation: Feminism & Art History Now - A symposium in honour of Linda Nochlin on the occasion of her 80th birthday was held on Saturday 5 February. As well as the chance to listen to ten thought provoking papers and associated discussion, all those attending were invited to a celebration with drinks and birthday cake. Further details of the symposium and a selection of photographs.

Dr Mechthild Fend and Dr Petra Lange-Berndt were awarded an AHRC Networking
Grant for the project The Culture of Preservation. The afterlife of
specimens between art and science since the eighteenth century. The
project runs from October 2010 to September 2012 and will involve a series
of research workshops, public lectures and a conference.

We would like to welcome the following three new members of staff in our department: Dr Stephanie Schwartz, Dr Richard Taws and Dr Sarah James.  Following is a brief description of their accomplishments to date.