Academic Activities

July 2020–June 2021

Summer Research Lunch Series 2020

17 July Theodore Gordon, ‘Dying a Very British Death: Ecstatic Antibodies and the Possibilities of Censorship of Queer Art in Britain, c.1990’

9–10 July 2020

Art Criticism and the Pandemic I

9 July, Resetting the Global

Speakers: Khairani Barokka, David Dibosa, Juliet Jacques, Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, Rehana Zaman

10 July, Whose Body?

Speakers: Larne Abse Gogarty, Robert McRuer, Jade Montserrat, Neo Sinoxolo Musangi, Marina Vishmidt

Chaired by Chris McCormack

6 October–3 December 2020

British Art and Natural Forces

A series of panels and keynote lectures addressed the ways in which artistic and art-historical thinking and practice –in the context of British art and visual culture – have shaped or been shaped by the encounter with natural forces, whether benign or cataclysmic, shortor long-term, visible or invisible.

6 October, Geomorphic Forces

Caterina Franciosi (Yale University), ‘“Hell on Earth”: Edward Burne-Jones’s Perseus Series (1876–1885) and Narratives of Geophysical Development’

Stephanie O’Rourke (University of St Andrews), ‘Picturing the Geological Sublime’

Joe Kerr (Syracuse University, London), ‘Alfred Watkins: Art, Nature and the Supernatural’

Tobah Aukland-Peck (City University, New York), ‘“Minerals of the Island”: Tracing the Fossil Landscapes of the 1951 Festival of Britain’

Chaired by Martin Myrone (PMC)

8 October, Plants, Animals

Lauren Cannady (University of Maryland), ‘The Order of Nature, the Disorder of Names’

Jeremy Melius (Tufts University), ‘Vivisection and the Visual Arts’

Laura Ouillon (Université de Paris), ‘Re-membering Trees after the Great Storm: Ecological Grief in Garry Fabian Miller’s Work’

Chaired by Sria Chatterjee (IXDM, Basel/ Max-Planck Kunsthistorisches Institut)

20 October, Authors of Architecture

Freya Wigzell (University College London), ‘Piling Up the Debris’

Euan McCartney Robson (University College London), ‘Sticks and Stones: A Poetic Cathedral’

Alicia Weisberg-Roberts (Independent Scholar), ‘Terraforming Hong Kong (1840–1860)’

Jonathan Hill (University College London), ‘The Landscape of Climate: John Evelyn and Brenda Colvin’

Chaired by Martin Postle (PMC)

22 October, Keynote

Andrew Patrizio (University of Edinburgh), ‘Apocalyptic Conjunctures: The Weather of Art History’

Chaired by Mark Hallett (PMC)

3 November, Observations, Meteorology

Mark Cheetham (University of Toronto), ‘Storm Clouds, Plague Clouds & Laundry Lines of the Nineteenth Century: Domestic Meteorology Aboard Arctic Voyages from Britain’

Benjamin Pollitt (National Maritime Museum, London), ‘Between Westall’s Chaos and Humboldt’s Cosmos: Picturing the Weather in 1848’

Sarah Gould (Panthéon Sorbonne University), ‘Matters of Excess in J. M. W. Turner’s Paintings’

Nicholas Robbins (University College London), ‘John Constable, Luke Howard, and the Aesthetics of Climate’

Chaired by Julia Lum (Scripps College)

5 November, Keynote

Anna Arabindan-Kesson (Princeton University), ‘Observation and Diagnosis: Pathologizing Bodies, Medicalizing Space in the British Empire’

Chaired by Sria Chatterjee (IXDM, Basel/ Max-Planck Kunsthistorisches Institut)

17 November, Decolonial Agencies

Holly Shaffer (Brown University), ‘Birds and Books in Flight across India and Britain’

Bergit Arends (University of Bristol), ‘Empire and Ecology: Activations by Contemporary Artists of Collections at the Natural History Museum in London’

Eleanore Neumann (University of Virginia), ‘Maria Graham on the Natural History of Brazil and Chile, 1821–1825’

Giulia Smith (University of Oxford), ‘Decolonising the Amazon: Aubrey Williams and Wilson Harris Find El Dorado’

Chaired by Hammad Nasar (PMC)

18–19 November, 48-hour Film Screening, INFINITY Minus Infinity

The Otolith Group (56 mins)

19 November, Keynote (Pre-Recorded)

T. J. Demos (University of California), ‘Racial Capitalocene: Ecology and Abolition’

24 November, Curating the Sea

Pandora Syperek (Loughborough University London) and Sarah Wade (University of East Anglia), ‘Curating the Sea: Oceanic Exhibition Making at a Time of Ecological Crisis’

Stefanie Hessler (Kunsthall Trondheim), ‘Tidalectic Curating’

Miranda Lowe (Natural History Museum, London), ‘Through the Curatorial Looking Glass: Re-Righting (not rewriting) the Oceanographic Natural Histories’

Chaired by Mark Hallett (PMC)

1 December, Unstable Boundaries, Ecologies

Siobhan Angus (Yale University), ‘“Ferments of a disquieting instability”: Iron, Industrialization, and Anna Atkins’ Cyanotypes’

Laura Franchetti (Courtauld Institute of Art), ‘The Undulating Self: Acoustical Physics, Embodied Sensations and Frederic Leighton’s Weaving the Wreath (c.1872)’

Thomas Hughes (Courtauld Institute of Art), ‘Ruskin, Drawing and the Limits of the Human’

Evelyn Whorrall-Campbell (University of Cambridge), ‘Erotic Ecologies: Horizontality and Be(holding) in Charlotte Prodger’s BRIDGIT (2016)’

Luca Beisel (Freie Universität Berlin), ‘“As Nature Herself Might Do, Were Her Such Intent”: The Form-giving Forces of Nature and their Simulation in British Picturesque Landscape Art (ca. 1770–1820)’

Chaired by Anna Reid (PMC)

3 December, Final Panel Discussion

Hosted by Anna Reid (PMC)

Speakers: Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Tobah Aukland-Peck, Sria Chatterjee, Thomas Hughes, Miranda Lowe, Eleanore Neumann, Temi Odumosu, Andrew Patrizio, Giulia Smith, Pandora Syperek, Alicia Weisberg-Roberts, Lucy Whelan

Introduction by Mark Hallett (PMC)

British Art Talks Podcast, Series 2, Autumn 2020

28 October, Episode 1, Lucy Skaer

25 November, Episode 2 ,Elizabeth Price Part 1

27 November, Episode 3, Elizabeth Price Part 2

2 December, Episode 4, Ryan Gander

7 December, Episode 5, Elizabeth Price Part 3

Autumn Research Lunch Series 2020

16 October Elizabeth Robles, ‘“Black Art” and British Art History’

13 November Jade Montserrat, ‘Contagion’

27 November Jessica Carden and Tiffany Boyle, ‘Affective Proximities’

10 November 2020, Slade, London, Asia: Intersections of Decolonial Modernism

A talk that formed part of a series of programmes for London, Asia, a collaboration between Asia Art Archive and the Paul Mellon Centre

Lecture by Ming Tiampo

Chaired by Hammad Nasar

9 December 2020

Paul Mellon Centre Book Night

Thomas Crow, The Hidden Mod in Modern Art: London, 1957–1969

Melody Barnett Deusner, Aesthetic Painting in Britain and America: Collectors, Art Worlds, Networks

Matthew Craske, Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Darkness

Martin Myrone, Making the Modern Artist: Culture, Class and Art-Education Opportunity in Romantic Britain

Sam Smiles, The Late Works of J. M. W. Turner: The Artist and his Critics

Spring Research Lunch Series 2021

8 January Hamish Muir, ‘Rewriting the Script: Theatre Playwriting Practice and the Design of an Ecological, Sustainable Theatre’

22 January Ileana-Lucia

Selejan, ‘Foto Studio Bluefields: Photography and Political Life on the Nicaraguan Caribbean’

29 January Rebecca Tropp, ‘Accommodating the Picturesque: The Country Houses of James Wyatt, John Nash and Sir John Soane, 1793–1815’

5 February Grace Thompson, ‘Bankside, Britain, Global, Public: The Turbine Hall Series in Tate Modern’

19 February Ana González, ‘Disorienting the Gaze: Ngozi Onwurah’s Early Films’

10 February 2021

French Art and Scotch Ideas: The Scottish Enlightenment and the Dawn of Modernity in French Art

A lecture as part of a collaboration between the Paul Mellon Centre and the Fleming Collection, focusing on aspects of Scottish art, both current and neglected.

Introduction by Martin Postle

Lecture by Duncan Macmillan

10 March 2021

A Film Discussion: Shadows From Light

An in-conversation organised in collaboration with the BFI and University of Reading, preceded by a 48-hour ‘screening’ of the film on the Paul Mellon Centre website.

Speakers: Will Fowler, Rachel Garfield

15 March 2021

Book Launch: Pevsner Architectural Guides, Buildings of England: Wiltshire

Speakers: James O. Davies, Charles O’Brien, Julian Orbach

Chaired by Mark Hallett

17 March 2021

Speaking of Art: Art, Histories and the Podcast

A panel discussion reflecting on the development of British Art Talks and Sculpting Lives, two podcasts produced by the Paul Mellon Centre.

Speakers: Jo Baring, Cathy Courtney, James Mansell, Inigo Wilkins

Co-chaired by Anna Reid and Sarah Victoria Turner

19 March 2021

One Object: Stories of British Art History

A presentation by four recipients of Centre funding who each focused on one intriguing object from their research to tell its story from their corner of British art history.

Lydia Miller, Letter to Ambrose McEvoy from Augustus John, Summer 1899, Vattetot-sur-mer

Fintan Cullen, Imperial Tensions on Display, Dublin c.1990

Hannah Lee, The Portrait of Philippe de la Motte

Pippa Oldfield, First World War Photo Album by Mairi Chisholm

31 March 2021

Book Launch: Pevsner Architectural Guides, Buildings of England: County Durham

Speakers: Simon Bradley, Martin Roberts

Chaired by Martin Postle

British Art Talks Podcast, Series 3: Experiments in Art Writing, Spring 2021

14 April, Episode 1, Catherine Grant

21 April, Episode 2, Adrian Rifkin

28 April, Episode 3, Maria Fusco

5 May, Episode 4, Roger Robinson

4–18 May 2021

Activating Art History

A series of panel discussions with curators, scholars, academics and authors who have all contributed to the study of British art history through the Paul Mellon Centre fellowships and grants scheme.

4 May, Curating Art History

Speakers: Ben Cartwright, Cynthia Johnston, Mark Sealy

Chaired by Martin Postle

11 May, Publishing Art History

Speakers: Jo Applin, Ian Dudley, Jacqueline Riding

Chaired by Mark Hallett

11 May, Researching Art History

Speakers: Eva Bentcheva, Anthony Geraghty, Felicity Myrone, Shirlynn Sham

Chaired by Sarah Victoria Turner

18 May, Digital Art History

Speakers: Adjoa Armah, Stacey Clapperton, Cathy Courtney, Lucy Steeds

Chaired by Lucy Andia

18 May, Funding Art History

Speakers: Emma Coleman, Gregory Perry, Sally Stott

Chaired by Harriet Fisher

5–6 May 2021

Art Criticism and the Pandemic II

5 May, Safer Spaces

Speakers: Sria Chatterjee, Isobel Harbison, Stella Nyanzi, Ariane Sutthavong

6 May, Wearing Out

Speakers: Oreet Ashery, Jackson Davidow, Leigh Claire La Berge, Marc Aziz Michael, Dante Micheaux, Monica Narula and Jeebesh Bagchi (Raqs Media Collective)

Chaired by Chris McCormack

Summer Fellows Lecture 2021

12 May Amy Tobin, ‘Issue and Taboo: Feminism and Art between New York and London c.1980’

Summer Research Seminar Series 2021

26 May Lynda Nead, ‘Glamour, Excess and Commodification: The Female Body in 1950s Britain’

9 June Julian Stallabrass, ‘Street Art: An Image of the People?’

23 June Sigrid de Jong, ‘Competing Capitals: Towards the Embellishment of London and Paris’

27 May–25 June 2021

London, Asia, Art, Worlds

A multi-part conference programme that took place over eight sessions across five weeks in a series of interconnected papers, conversations, performances and interventions as part of the Paul Mellon Centre’s London, Asia project

27 May, Sociality and Affect

Leela Gandhi (Brown University), ‘Invisible Inc’

Simone Wille (Art Historian), ‘Krishna Reddy between Santiniketan, London, Paris, Ljubljana, and Vienna: Cold War Friendships and Networks, Collaborations and Aesthetic Solidarities’

Greg Salter (University of Birmingham), ‘Sunil Gupta and Transnational Queer Kinship in the 1980s’

Chaired by Sarah Victoria Turner (PMC)

3 June, Potential Histories and Solidarities

Omar Kholeif (Sharjah Art Foundation) and Michael Rakowitz (Artist), ‘Keynote Conversation’

David Morris (Afterall), ‘Artists for Democracy and the Vietnam Festival (1975)’

Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani (YCBA), ‘A Little Too Much “Commonwealth New Vision”’

Chaired by Parul Dave-Mukherji (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

4 June, Circulation and Encounter

Tim Barringer (Yale University) and Hew Locke (Artist), ‘East Indian, West Indian’

Michelle Wong (Asia Art Archive), ‘Overlay Pages, Stitched Worlds: On Ha Bik Chuen’s Creative and Archival Practice’

Sophia Balagamwala (Artist), ‘Whereabouts Unknown / Ata Pata Maloom Nahin’

Chaired by Hammad Nasar (PMC)

10 June, Pedagogy and LearningΩ

Naazish Ata-Ullah (formerly National College of Arts, Lahore), ‘Multi-layered Histories: Evolving Pedagogies in Pakistan’s Pioneering Art School’

Aziz Sohail (Curator), ‘A Changed World: London, Karachi, 1985–1999’

Charmaine Toh (National Gallery

Singapore), ‘First Move: Tang Da Wu in London’

Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol (Singapore Art Museum), ‘Human, Person, Friend: Subjects of Comparative Religion in Postwar Thai Art’

Chaired by Ming Tiampo (Carleton University)

11 June, Bureaucracy and Agency

Zainub Verjee (Artist), ‘Past Disquiet of World Making: A Normative Enquiry into the Festival of India in London (1982)’

Aparna Kumar (University College

London), ‘Leveraging a Royal Coordinate: Partition and Museum Diplomacy across London and Lahore’

Sanjukta Sunderason (University of Amsterdam), ‘De/constructing Commonwealth Art Today, 1962’

Chaired by Karin Zitzewitz (Michigan State University)

17 June, Aesthetics and Ways of Knowing

Shigemi Inaga (Kyoto Seika University), ‘If You’re Fluent in English, Put on Japanese Kimono Abroad. But if Your English Is Awful, Better Be Dressed in Western Attire’

Sadia Shirazi (Curator), ‘Zarina: A Postcolonial Grid’

Elena Crippa (Tate), ‘Kim Lim’s Early Work: Reconfiguration and Reconciliation’

Eva Bentcheva (Art Historian), ‘Incommensurable Abstractions: Rasheed Araeen and Prafulla Mohanti’s Performances between Britain and South Asia’

Chaired by Dorothy Price (University of Bristol)

24 June, Thinking Through Empire Rana Mitter (University of Oxford), ‘The Making, Breaking and Return of Empire – 1750 to 2021 and Beyond’

Dipti Khera (New York University), ‘From Udaipur’s Streets to London’s Stephenson Way: Sensing Historical Moods between the Visual Worlds and Archived Words of Ghasi, Waugh, Finden, and Tod’

Toshio Watanabe (University of East Anglia), ‘Watercolour Landscape of “Japan” in Victorian London, Meiji Tokyo and Colonial Taipei: Shifts in the Canon’

Gemma Sharpe (City University of New York), ‘The Odder Story: Iqbal Geoffrey’s London’

Chaired by Wenny Teo (Courtauld Institute of Art)

25 June, Thinking from Asia

Patrick Flores (University of the Philippines), ‘Aroundness, Awareness: To Rework Art Out of Asia’

Amrita Dhallu (Tate), ‘Subcontinentment: Diasporas, Futurisms, Worldbuilding’

Farida Batool (Artist and Researcher) and Sehr Jalil (Artist and Researcher), ‘Contesting Public(s) and Art Education in Pakistan’

Stephanie Bailey (Ocula Magazine), ‘Thinking Through Empire from Asia: An Object Lesson’

Chaired by Yeewan Koon (University of Hong Kong)

Hammad Nasar (PMC), John Tain (Asia Art Archive), Ming Tiampo (Carleton University) and Sarah Victoria Turner (PMC), ‘Conference Wrap-Up’