New Approaches to British Art: 1939-1969

Although British art has benefited from an extraordinary growth in scholarly studies over the last decade the rich history of the years between 1939 and 1969 remains relatively underexplored. Despite the recent buoyancy of the market, the large audiences for modern art internationally, and the significance of monographic exhibitions devoted to a few select names (Nicholson, Caro, Bacon, Freud), there is still a dearth of published work by younger scholars in this period and little thematic and analytic study in comparison to scholarship on British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This conference will stimulate further study of the art of these years and provide a forum in which new work and fresh approaches can be discussed and developed. It has attracted speakers from Europe, Australia and the US and a range of proposals examining transatlantic relations; anthropology and the Independent Group; decolonization and pop; landscape in the nuclear age; art, architecture and photography; artists and critics such as Herbert Read and Adrian Stokes; and the institutional field including exhibitions and the export drive. We look forward to a stimulating two days in June.

Organised by: Professors Lisa Tickner and David Peters Corbett

Full details available on The Courtauld Institute of Art Website