British Art

Overview

The British Art Research School

The British Art research school comprises an internationally unique and significant collection of scholars interested in art in the British isles and historical territories from the late antique to the contemporary periods.

We enjoy particular concentrations of expertise in medieval stained glass, sculpture and architecture; 17th- and early 18th-century architecture; 18th-century painting, sculpture and graphic art; Victorian and Modernist painting, sculpture and architecture; and British art since 1945.

The school considers British art as it has been produced in a diverse array of geographical, cultural and material contexts.

Working from a wide range of theoretical, historiographical and methodological positions, members of the school variously address British art in relation to issues of materiality, iconography, class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity, as also in relation to local, continental, imperial and post-colonial cultures.

The British Art Research School offers a very broad range of options at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and has a sizeable, thriving community of research students.

Scholars connected with the British Art Research School have been responsible for a range of recent, internationally-significant exhibitions, and have published numerous important monographs, articles and essays on the subject.

Staff

Research staff

Students

Research students

Current students

  • Kirsty Breedon
    Herbert Ward: Sculpture, Politics and Exploration in the Atlantic World, 1884 to the Present
  • Desiree du Chair (University of Warwick, member of York-Warwick AHRC research project 'Displaying Victorian Sculpture')
    Sculpture and the Royal Children
  • Charlotte Drew
    The formation and early development of the sculpture collections of the South Kensington Museum
  • Caroline Good 
    Lovers of Art: English writers on painting and the narratives of nation, 1658-1719 (part of the AHRC research project: 'Court, Country, City: British Art 1660-1735.')
  • Lucinda Lax
    'Telling the Eye a Moral Story': Edward Penny, Genre Painting and the Royal Academy
  • Arlene Leis
    Sarah Sophia Banks: femininity, sociability and the practice of collecting in late eighteenth-century England
  • Eoin Martin (University of Warwick, member of York-Warwick AHRC research project 'Displaying Victorian Sculpture')
    Victoria and Albert and sculpture
  • Peter Moore
    Graphic Art and Empire: British Visual Culture in the Atlantic World, 1660-1735
  • Catherine Spencer
    'The Lessons of Anthropology' in British and American Art, 1950-70
  • Philippa Turner
    Image and Devotion in Late Medieval English Cathedrals
  • Katie Tyreman
    Visualizing: Victorian Women Artists
  • Emma Watts
    British Art - Exhibition and Reception in late 19th Century Australia
  • Sean Willcock
    Consolidating the Colonies: Art and Unrest in the British Empire, c.1855-1880
  • Gabriel Williams
    Sculpture at the Victorian International Exhibitions

Recent postgraduates

  • Sarah Burnage
    Life and work of John Bacon
  • Carolyn Conroy
    The life and work of Simeon Solomon after 1873
  • John Gledhill
    A catalogue raisonné of the oil paintings of Matthew Smith
  • Rosanna Harrison
    George Wilson and the Engraved Fan Leaf Design, 1790-1800
  • Imogen Hart
    Arts and crafts objects
  • Karin Hiscock
    The axis group
  • Sam Howard
    'A new theatre of prospects': Eighteenth-century British Painters and Artistic Mobility
  • Philip Kerrigan
    British and US botanical illustration
  • Ariane Mildenberg
    Marks, buttons and notes: phenomenology and creative production in Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein and Wallace Stevens
  • Ian Neal
    Representations of Reverie: Rossetti, Whistler, Clausen
  • Lara Perry
    Facing femininities: women in the National Portrait Gallery, 1856-1900
  • Jackie Riding
    Joseph Highmore (1692-1780)
  • Sam Shaw
    'Equivocal Positions': The Influence of William Rothenstein, c.1890-1910
  • Michael Walsh
    The career and work of C R W Nevinson to 1924

Teaching

Teaching

Undergraduate modules

  • The Age of the Cathedrals: Architecture in England 1050-1250
  • Church, College & Castle c. 1250-1450
  • Architecture & Politics in Stuart England
  • Art & the City: Representing Georgian London & York
  • Casts and Cultures: The Crystal Palace Sydenham
  • Victorian Art
  • Modernism 1900-1939
  • Image & Word: 19th & 20th Century Interactions between the Visual Arts & Writing
  • Sculpture in the Twentieth Century
  • The Cultures of Sculpture, 1815-1918
  • Painting in Britain
  • Popular Propaganda, Satire & Caricature
  • The English Country House
  • Medieval Stained Glass
  • Sculpture in the Circum-Atlantic World
  • Stained Glass in the Great Church c. 1170-1350
  • The Glory of Gothic: Art for England c. 1400-1547
  • The Art of the Insular World c. 600-1066
  • The Art of Anglo-Saxon England, c.600-1066
  • British Art since the Second World War
  • The 'British School': Sculpture in Britain, c.1760-1837

Postgraduate modules

  • Art & Imagery in York Minster
  • Scrolls and Serpents: The Arts of the Early Insular World (c.600-900 AD)
  • The Grand Tour
  • Graphic Satire in 18th Century England
  • Exhibition: Art & Display in 18th Century England
  • Art and Aestheticism in Late Victorian Britain
  • Modernism in France & England, 1914-1940
  • Glory of Gothic: Art for England c.1400-1547
  • Sir John Vanbrugh & Friends: English Architecture, 1660-1736
  • English Sculpture 1848-99 and English Sculpture 1900-1939

Events


The British Art Research School runs a very active programme of events each term. All details of forthcoming events will be advertised on the History of Art Department News and Events page. The details of all past events are kept in the News and Events archive. 

The British Art Research School also runs a blog which lists forthcoming events and exhibitions concerned with British art studies internationally. It is one of the most up-to-date and exciting resources available for researchers of art in Britain. 

Blog

The British Art Research School blog and e-bulletin are edited by History of Art Department PhD students Caroline Good, Catherine Spencer and Sean Willcock. Through the BARS blog and bulletin, we aim to build a community of scholars who are interested in British art studies.

The BARS blog contains a wealth of information about current research into the field of British art, including calls for papers, upcoming events, exhibitions and conferences, and listings of current research projects by Phd students and scholars. It is updated very regularly and is one of the most useful and up-to-date resources for anyone interested in British art studies. 

An e-bulletin, the British Art Research Quarterly, is sent out electronically to the BARS mailing list. If you would like to join, please email histart-bars@york.ac.uk