I begin with a brilliant piece of news which is also an opportunity for those of you considering MA study in the department. For the past three years, we have been able to award Wallace studentships to MA students in the department who demonstrate both academic excellence and financial need. Thanks to a further very generous donation by Graham and Denise Wallace, we can now offer the Wallace studentships for a further five years. We are really really pleased about this, as you can imagine – the studentships attract excellent students to our popular MA programmes who would otherwise not be able to afford to come here. You can find out more about the studentships, as well as about other funding available for post-graduate study in the School of Arts here. Remember too that we’re currently accepting applications for our two new MA programmes: MA History of Architecture and MA History of Photography, as well as MA History of Art and MA Museum Cultures. The Wallace studentships support full-time study on any of these programmes by Home/EU students.
Kudos to Professor Kate Retford, whose book The Conversation Piece: Making Modern Art in 18th-Century Britain has just won the Historians of British Art prize for Exemplary Scholarship on the Period between 1600-1800! The jury commented: ‘Retford argues that the conversation piece played a key role in articulating familiar networks and social norms in Georgian Britain. Notions of politeness and performance take on renewed resonance, and Retford’s book will undoubtedly become the now-standard reference on the topic.’
Facing the Text: Extra-Illustration, Print Culture, and Society in Britain, 1769-1840, by Lucy Peltz, who is Honorary Research Fellow in the department, has won in the post-1800 category, so it’s good news all round for Birkbeck.
A few upcoming events to mention:
Are you interested in exploring your options for employment after you have completed your degree? Are you wondering what kind of work you can do with a degree in History of Art? If so, come to our employability event on Thursday 7 February 2019, 6-7:30, MAL 402. It will feature the presence of Gabriel Toso, who did a BA in History of Art at Birkbeck, talking about his work experience. Gabriel is currently the manager of Whitford Fine Art, one of London’s leading international art galleries, specialising in European and British 20th Century painting and sculpture. Book here.
Also coming up is a screening and discussion co-sponsored by Birkbeck and the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. Un Oeil, Une Histoire is a series of French-made films, each focused on an influential art historian. On Saturday 9 February, 1-4pm, in the Birkbeck Cinema, we will be screening the films on Svetlana Alpers and Georges Didi-Huberman, followed by a panel discussion and reception. This event is sold out – if you’ve booked a place and can no longer attend, please do cancel your booking to free up a place for someone else.
A notice too about a lecture this Tuesday 5 February 6pm organised by our affiliated society, the London Art History Society. Katherine Cuthbert, an artist and art historian who is a graduate of the MA History of Art, will be lecturing on the ‘Triumphs and Laments’ project by William Kentridge, a South African artist, which is a ‘reverse graffiti’ frieze covering a 550 metre stretch of the Tiber embankment walls in Rome. Katherine worked with Kentridge on the project during a placement in Rome while she was on the MA. Book here.
Anna Jamieson, PhD Student in History of Art, leads the next meeting of the Birkbeck Eighteenth-Century Reading Group, on the topic ‘The Sentimental Look in the Asylum: Henry Mackenzie and Sophie von La Roche at Bedlam’ on Wednesday 13th February, 12-2pm, Gordon Square room 106. Anna will introduce two texts which describe visiting Bethlem Royal Hospital, commonly known as Bedlam, during the latter decades of the eighteenth century: Henry Mackenzie’s novel The Man of Feeling (1771) and Sophie von la Roche’s diary entry of her visit in 1786. All welcome. For copies of the texts please contact Kate Retford: k.retford@bbk.ac.uk.
Finally, some exciting news from an alumna: Gaia Penteriani has been appointed trustee of the Venice in Peril Fund, a UK charity which raises funds for the conservation of monuments, works of art and buildings across the city of Venice and its islands. Gaia has recently completed the MA in History of Art, with a focus on theoretical and empirical issues related to the preservation of art and architecture, in particular in Venice, so this appointment is a very fitting continuation to her studies and interests. Recent campaigns of the Fund range from the conservation of illuminated choir books from the city’s churches, a project to reassemble a Venetian palace’s ceiling, a 17th-century garden statue of an elephant and plans for the Armstrong Mitchell Crane, a masterpiece of Victorian engineering which soars above the Arsenale skyline.
Armstrong Mitchell Crane, Venice, photo Michael Harding
In support of its conservation work, Venice in Peril also promotes a deeper understanding of Venice – its complex history, the contribution it has made to world culture and the challenges it faces today – to encourage responsible and informed engagement with the city, through a programme of lectures, publications and research grants. You can find out more about the Fund, its projects and events programme here.
More on alum activities in my next post – and more on Venice in due course too!
