Monthly Archives: October 2015

Illumination: How the Visual Captures the Imagination (Senate House Library, London 28 Sept – 19 Dec 2015)

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Illumination: How the Visual Captures the Imagination
Senate House Library, London

28 Sept – 19 Dec 2015

http://senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/visiting-the-library/exhibitions/illumination/

How do ideas move from the mental to the physical? From centuries old vases and painted canvasses to books and the virtual, creative ideas manifest themselves visually and allow us to understand such diverse worlds as cartography and astronomy to music and philosophy. Artists have drawn inspiration from themes which have transcended time such as the study of the human body and the natural world, to give them physical presence. The earliest printed books contained illuminations and later illustrations in which image and word converged to generate new visual forms for the reader. Technology also impacted on the ability to interpret objects moving from the naked eye to the scientific instruments designed to enhance optics. This exhibition will explore connections between these developments and how the gestation of the creative idea contributes to our understanding of visual culture. The exhibition draws together for the first time materials from Senate House Library with those of all of the Institute Libraries of the School of Advanced Study.

Over the three months, the Illumination Series will host over twenty events: lectures, symposia, workshop and performances which explore aspects of the visual through different disciplinary perspectives to bring new insights into the materials on display in the exhibition and the Library’s wider collections. Admission to the exhibition and events are free. However, due to space limitations, tickets are required for admission for the events. Click on the Eventbrite link for each event for ticket availability. For further information on the exhibition and the Series, contact the Curator and Research Librarian, Colin J.P. Homiski (details on the website).

Autumn issue of ‘Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly’ now online

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“And I only am escaped alone to tell thee”: the autumn issue of Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly is now online.

http://blake.lib.rochester.edu/blakeojs/index.php/blake

Blake Illustrated Quarterly

It is dedicated to two articles on Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job. Mei-Ying Sung describes in detail for the first time the set of pre-publication Job proofs at the Beinecke Library at Yale, and Sibylle Erle talks about Alfred Tennyson’s copy of Job: how and when he acquired it and how he used it.

For past issues, see http://bq.blakearchive.org/

Early Career Researchers network for historians of British art

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We would like to invite you to join our new Early Career Researchers network for historians of British art. The aim of this network is to provide a forum for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) working in the field of British art history to meet and connect, share work and provide supportive criticism. The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art will host regular afternoon gatherings where members can present short papers, offer one another feedback, discuss their experiences and share information about career-related topics. 

Meetings in the coming semester will held on 12th November, 26th November, and 10th December 2015 between 4.30-6pm at the Paul Mellon Centre, 15-16 Bedford Square, WC1B 3JA. Meeting 1 will be a chance for us to get to know one another, to talk a bit about our work, and for some of us to present research and gain feedback.

At Meeting 2 Oriana Baddeley, Dean of Research at University of the Arts London, will be on hand to discuss REF and how best to approach it. We will also have time to share research. Meeting 3 will be our last before Christmas, and Samuel Bibby, Associate Editor of Art History, will join us to discuss preparing manuscripts for submission to journals. Again, we will also have time to discuss our own research. We anticipate that this session will end with a sociable trip to the pub.

Members are invited to share their research journeys and profile information via our blog. Please contact us via ecrbritart@gmail.com.

We define Early Career Researchers as post-doctoral scholars who are within 5 years of receiving their doctorate, or preparing for their viva. This definition can be flexible, so please do get in touch if you think the ECR network might be useful for your situation.

With very best wishes,

Dr Hannah Leaper, Paul Mellon Centre for British Art

Dr Sophie Hatchwell, University of Bristol

Registration open: Artist and Empire: New Dynamics, Tate, 24-6 Nov. 2015

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International conference
Artist and Empire: New Dynamics: 1790 to the present day

Tate Britain, Clore Auditorium
24 – 26 November 2015

We are pleased to announce that Tate is holding a major conference in collaboration with Birkbeck, University of London and Culture at King’s College London, to mark the opening of the exhibition Artist and Empire. Scholars, curators and artists from around Britain and the world will consider art created under the conditions of the British Empire, its aftermath, and its future in museum and gallery displays. Scholarship has expanded over the last two decades across a span of disciplines and locations. This conference takes the historic opportunity of the exhibition, featuring diverse artists from the sixteenth century to the present day, to bring together people to meet and share the latest research being developed around this subject. The papers, roundtables and audience discussions will consider the cosmopolitan character of objects and images, and the way geographical, cultural and chronological dislocations have in many instances obscured, changed or suppressed their history, significance and aesthetics. We will also explore how approaches to contemporary art, archives, curation and collecting can help develop new ways to look at them now.

24 November – Exhibition preview and Keynote Lecture
25 November, Day One – Artist & Empire: The Long Nineteenth Century
26 November, Day Two – Artist & Empire: Curating in a Transnational Context

For further information please contact the conference administrator, Jessica Knights, at jessica.knights@tate.org.uk

Artist and Empire: New Dynamics is convened by Tate, Birkbeck and Culture at King’s College London. The conference has been generously supported by Culture at King’s College London, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Birkbeck School of Arts, The British Association of Victorian Studies, The Association of Art Historians, Creative Victoria and the Australia Council for the Arts. ’Parallel Perspectives: Curating in London’s transnational contexts’ is a Culture at King’s College London project in collaboration with the British Library, Tate and V&A Museum.

Full program details will be announced shortly. Book now to secure your place: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/conference/artist-and-empire-new-dynamics

Sincerely,
Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies

A very Richardsonian experience: New BBC4 series on the origins of the novel, starts 8th October at 9pm

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A very Richardsonian experience

By Lynn Shepherd

I’m sure a lot of people will remember the BBC4 series A Very British Murder (currently available again on the iPlayer, incidentally). What you may not know is that BBC Arts has been filming a follow-up, which will start airing in the next couple of weeks. It’s A Very British Romance this time, exploring the origins of the romantic novel, and how our notions of love and marriage have evolved over the last 200 years. To the Beeb’s immense credit, they’re starting their jaunt through romantic fiction with Samuel Richardson. And that, dear reader, is how I found myself in Spitalfields, on a bright cold day in April, talking Pamela, passion, and pictures with Lucy Worsley.

Still

The house we shot the footage in must be one of the most popular film locations in London, judging by the people going in and out. It’s an 18th century house in Princelet Street that’s been stripped back to how it must have looked when it was first built, closets, candles, wainscots and all. I’ve done some filming before, but it’s always fascinating to watch the pros at work, and see how many takes it takes to capture even a few seconds of the finished article.

Making the literary interesting on screen isn’t always easy, but in Richardson’s case, of course, we have the illustrations to Pamela to help bring the text to life. Basing our discussion on prints of Highmore’s ‘novel-in-pictures’ gave Lucy and me the chance talk through the plot and themes of the novel, and then broaden the conversation out to 18th-century attitudes to love and sex, as well as the significance of the prints themselves, as examples of the ‘multi-media event’ that Pamela became.

The series starts on BBC4 on 8th October at 9pm and I think you’d enjoy watching it – I certainly enjoyed being part of making it.