MA IN THE HISTORY OF ART: EUROPE, ASIA AND AMERICA

History of Art at Sussex offers an unique combination: an outstanding reputation in research and an innovative MA programme, which emphasises global perspectives and cultural diversity.

The MA in the History of Art: Europe, Asia and America includes the study of the visual arts and material cultures of China, South Asian arts and architecture, Byzantine art, North American art and visual culture in the twentieth century as well as the visual arts and architecture in western Europe in the early modern and modern periods and contemporary art. Colonialism and post-colonialism, contemporary critical theory and cultural history, questions of historiography and method and the interrogations of feminism are among the shared concerns of the subject group. Courses consider a wide range of issues including theories of space, the relations of power and the image, institutions, representations of the body and difference, and cross-cultural approaches. The importance of understanding the role of the visual arts in the transformative interactions between cultures, past and present, and of developing new art historical paradigms are integral to the teaching at Sussex.

History of Art at Sussex. The Subject Group in the History of Art at Sussex has an international reputation for outstanding research. In 1996, the History of Art Subject Group was ranked 5* in the British Research Assessment Exercise and so identified as one of only three such departments in Britain to attain the very highest research rating. In the previous assessment exercise of 1992 the Subject Group was among the top five national departments in the History of Art. For MA and research students History of Art at Sussex provides a friendly and stimulating environment and an international scholarly community for the exchange of ideas and in which intellectual life and scholarly endeavour thrive.

The programme of study. The MA programme may be taken as a one year full-time course or, for part-time students, it can be taken over two years. It is assessed and examined by four term papers (each of 5,000 words) and a 20,000 word dissertation. Entry is in the autumn term, at the beginning of the British academic year. A good honours degree in the History of Art or related discipline together with a strong commitment to advanced studies in the subject are required for admission. Those for whom English is a second language are advised to include samples of written work in English with an application. UK applicants will be invited to interview.

The programme includes the Core Course: Readings in the History of Art (taken by all students in the first term) and 3 option courses, selected from those on offer in any one year. Full time students enrol in 1 option course in the first term, and 2 option courses in the second; part-time students enrol in 1 option course in each of the second, fourth and fifth terms. Some option courses are linked: each part may be taken as a free-standing course or students may take both parts 1 and 2 over two terms. Students may, with the agreement of the Programme Director, take an option course selected from those offered in other MA programmes in the Graduate Research Centre in the Humanities. The dissertation is undertaken by full-time students in the third term, and by part-time students in the third and sixth terms. In addition to the core course and the optional courses, a full programme of Research Skills and Methods is provided for all students.

Core Course: Readings in the History of Art

All students take this course which critically investigates the discipline and its methodologies by discussing a wide range of art historical texts on European, Asian and American art in relation to key themes in recent critical theory.

Photography and Twentieth Century Visual Culture, parts 1 and 2

These courses will engage with issues in the history and historiography of twentieth-century photography in relation to cultural history. Part 1 begins with Pictorialism and key figures such as Alfred Steiglitz and A.L. Coburn and will look at the links with Symbolist art and theory. The utopian technological outlook of the 1920s and 1930s in the USSR and in Germany will be considered, as will the links between Surrealism and photography during the same period. National exercises in surveying and social mapping through documentary photography will be explored through the work of Walker Evans and Bill Brandt. Part 2 begins with the 'Family of Man' project, then traces counter-cultural imagery from the 1950s to the 1970s through the work of Diane Arbus, Robert Frank and Robert Mapplethorpe. The course concludes with an examination of new directions in contemporary work, digital perspectives and recent practice which has interrogated the boundaries of form and medium.

Art, Colonialism and National Identities: India, Mexico and Japan

The course deals comparatively with the nationalist art of the three regions in order to examine what they share and in what ways they differ. The global impact of colonial empires has not been confined to the transmission of Western technology and nationalism to the Third World. The Western canon has had an equally powerful, though ambivalent, effect on artistic taste. The course explores two different models of transmission of Western art to the non-western world - the Mexican and the Asian - which gave rise to two different forms of anti-colonial resistance.

Vision and Subjectivity in Chinese Art

Issues of the relationship between 'vision as social fact' and the creation of forms of subjectivity have been of major interest to art and cultural historians of the European tradition in recent years. This course will look at some of this theoretical material in the specific case of China, testing the 'visuality' paradigm in a different cultural context. Students are not expected to have any prior experience with Chinese art.

Creating the Court parts 1 and 2

Princely courts can be found in many cultures and across many centuries. This course is designed to introduce postgraduate students to the skills and issues required for historical investigation of courts and their artistic patronage. This option will examine questions of etiquette, decorum, dress, the spatial arrangements of palaces, and the gendering of imagery and space. We will take a particular interest in contacts between European and non-European courts, focusing on the exchange of state rituals, and collectable objects in for example, Italy and Byzantium, England and China or Italy and east Asia.

England and the Visual Arts 1500-1700: The European and American contexts, parts 1 and 2

The conventional critical history of the visual arts in England in the period 1500-1700 has judged them against the standards, norms and a degree of self-evaluation (in theory, treatises, travel literature and other discourses) set elsewhere in Europe. One significant debate will therefore be around the notion of 'Renaissance', and an exploration of contacts between England and Italy. This course explores notions of national identity shaped by social and religious forces, such as the Reformation, and political change. It will focus on the dialogues between English patrons, artists and collectors and cultures outside Europe. Key areas of study will include the development of consumer culture, trade with Europe and East Asia, and colonial expansion, particularly in the Americas, and the impact of these upon imagery, cartography and architecture.

The Power of Images in the Byzantine Age

This course examines the different spheres and ways in which images carried power in Byzantium. The Byzantine Empire is the only world power to have thrown itself into chaos over a dispute about the place and role of images in society. An examination of power and propaganda will go some way to explaining the relationship between this society and its images.

Post-Colonialism and Visual Culture, parts 1 and 2

These courses explore debates around post-colonialism and visual culture, and subject both terms to scrutiny. The aim is to provide students with a grounding in post-colonial cultural analysis and to address issues of vision and the gaze, visual representation, architectural and urban space, exhibitions, curating and display. Selected case studies will explore a variety of historical contexts, geographical locations and media.

Venice and London in the Eighteenth Century

Students will make a comparative evaluation of these two important eighteenth century art worlds, analysing both reactions of British Grand Tourists to the city of Venice and its visual culture, and also the impact of Renaissance and eighteenth-century Venetian art on taste in London.

The Western Canon and Other Cultures, parts 1 and 2

Drawing on art historical, literary and anthropological texts, this course seeks to link art historical issues with broader questions of cultural representations and the role of ideology in western artistic discourse. Visual and literary images are analysed around key texts.

Research Skills and Methods

A full programme of training in research skills and methods is provided for all students on the MA programme.

RESEARCH DEGREES

While the MA in the History of Art is a free-standing qualification, it also provides preparation for advanced research. History of Art at Sussex offers research supervision widely in the history of art and architecture. Special areas of interest include the history of the visual arts and architecture of western Europe in the early modern and modern periods, the visual arts and material culture of early modern China, South Asian art and architecture, Byzantine art, North American art of the twentieth century and contemporary visual culture, including photography. Shared concerns across period interests include issues of methodology and critical theory, the study of imperialism and colonialism, post-colonial and feminist studies, vision and visuality, institutions, the representation of the body, and the spaces of culture. Research students are based in the Graduate Research Centre in the Humanities.

We welcome applications from those with a background in the discipline or a in contingent field of study such as history, the history of architecture and/or design, English, anthropology or cultural studies who are able to demonstrate an engagement with the history of art and architecture at an advanced level. Those interested in applying are invited to discuss their research interests with a potential supervisor before making a formal application. Some research students enter at M.Phil level and later transfer to the D.Phil programme; others complete a 40,000 word dissertation for the degree of Master of Philosophy. A limited amount of funding may be available for outstanding research students, and this may involve some teaching. A full programme of training in research skills and methods is available for M.Phil and D.Phil students.

Recent thesis titles include:

Chinese Cinema and Civil Society in the Post-Maoist Era

A Critical History of English Conceptual Art, 1966-72

Surrealist Photography in Paris

Narrative and the Absent Body: Mechanism of Meaning in First World War Memorials

The Illustrated Book in Late Baroque Naples

Greuze, Sedaine and Hybrid Genre in Late Eighteenth-Century France

Religion Femininity and Sovereignty in the Spanish Netherlands 1590-1635

Formations of Cultural Identity : Art Criticism, The National Gallery and the Royal Academy, 1820-63

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

The Sussex Centre for Research in the History of Art was founded in 1998 as a focus for scholarship in art history at the University. The Director of Programmes, Dr Michelle O’Malley, organises a programme of lectures, conferences and research events which provide a major focus for debate and an opportunity to discuss issues of current interest within the discipline.

Research Seminars are held regularly to which distinguished scholars and curators and final year doctoral candidates are invited to speak about their current research. A programme of Visiting Lecturers brings senior scholars in the discipline whose research is closely related to that of faculty and graduate students. The History of Art Subject Group is linked to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through an exchange programme which extends and enhances the research and teaching expertise of both institutions. Each year a member of staff from the museum teaches at Sussex, while a member of the University faculty undertakes research in the museum collections.

A strong and lively programme run by graduate students includes seminars, a reading-group to discuss contemporary critical theory, and events in the History of Art. They publish an on-line journal, SHARP (Sussex History of Art Research Publication).

The Graduate Research Centre in the Humanities provides a full programme of events and seminars which MA students are encouraged to attend.

SPECIALIST RESOURCES

The History of Art Image Archive contains over 100,000 colour slides, the Bridson collection of photographs, and subscriptions to several magazines and journals of art history and art criticism. Students have access to computing and word-processing facilities. The University Library is well stocked with publications in the discipline and related subject areas. Its Special Collections include major holdings in British modernism, a distinguished collection of printed and illustrated books and the Mass Observation archives of photographs and oral histories. The Barlow Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades, one of the most significant of its kind, is housed within the Library building. The Gardner Arts Centre, also on campus, provides a regular programme of events and contemporary exhibitions.

Where appropriate, MA teaching includes study in nearby locations. These include magnificent country houses and parks, some, like Petworth, with outstanding art collections, the homes of the ‘Bloomsbury’ artists and writers at Charleston and Rodmell, and the collections in Brighton at the Royal Pavilion and the Museum and Art Gallery, as well as galleries, museums and exhibitions in London. The campus is in easy reach of major London libraries such as the National Art Library, national galleries and museums, and a host of specialist and smaller libraries located in the capital and the region.

FUNDING

Applicants to the MA and to research degrees are eligible to apply for Arts and Humanities Research Board studentships. The British Academy, The Royal Historical Society, the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada and the Green Foundation are currently funding students at Sussex undertaking doctoral research in the History of Art.

CAREERS

Sussex graduates have found employment in higher education, publishing, the art market, conservation, museum management, curatorship, education and publicity.

Professor Deborah Cherry

MA (Edinburgh) PhD (London). Works in feminist and post-colonial studies; critical theory; 19th and early 20th century British Art. Books include The Edwardian Era (1987), Treatise on the Sublime (1990), Painting Women: Victorian Women Artists (1993), Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture (forthcoming). Currently Post-Graduate Convenor.

BA (Cambridge), PhD (London). Formerly Deputy Curator in the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prof Clunas works on the arts of China. His recent books are Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Modern China (Cambridge, 1991), Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China (Reaktion Books/Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1996), Art in China (1997), Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China (1997). Currently the Subject Chair.

BA (Cambridge), MA, PhD (London). An authority on British 16th century art and architecture, Dr Howard also offers supervision on French 16th century architecture and Netherlandish painting c.1500-1700. The Early Tudor Country House: Architecture and Politics 1490 - 1550 (1987), The Tudor Image (Tate, London 1995) European Ornament from 1450 to the present: a social history (1996).

BA (Durham), MA (Birmingham), PhD (London). Dr James is an authority on Classical and Byzantine art, particularly in relation to audiences of art at these periods and the role of women as subjects and patrons. Light and Colour in Byzantine Art (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), Women, Men and Eunuchs in Byzantium (ed) (1996). She is currently working on a study of Byzantine Empresses.

BA (East Anglia), MPhil PhD (London): (EURO). Special interests in tomb culture of the early modern period, methodologies of art history, issues in the history of architecture and aspects of 18th century art. He was guest curator of the exhibition The Art of Death at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1992 and author of a book of the same title (1991). Co-editor of Renaissance Bodies. The Human Figure in English Culture c1540-1660. Signs of Life. Funeral Monuments in Post-Reformation England(forthcoming)

BA DPhil (Sussex): (EAM). An authority on 20th century painting, film and photography; all aspects of cultural history and visual representation c1880 to the present. Dr Mellor is Chair of the Visual Arts Panel of the Arts Council of England. Publications include A Paradise Lost (1987, reprinted 1994) and The Sixties Art Scene in London (1993), The Sixties: Britian and France 1962-73, The Utopian Years (ed., 1997).

BA PhD (London), MA (Cantab): (EAM). Dr Mitter is an authority on Indian art and architecture. Much Maligned Monsters: a history of European reactions to Indian Art(1977, reprinted 1992), Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850-1947 (1995), Art in India(forthcoming)

BA (Harvard), PhD (London): (EURO). Dr Welch works on Italian art and society between 1300 and 1550. She is an authority on North Italian Courts, with particular interest in female patronage. Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan (1996), Art and Society in Italy 1350-1500 (1997).

FURTHER INFORMATION

For information on the MA programme please contact:

For information on research degrees please contact:

For specific academic enquiries please contact:

Email: D.Cherry@sussex.ac.uk

For details of admission procedures please contact:

Link to History of Art Subject Group Web Page

Page compiled by Meaghan Clarke, currently postgraduate student in the History of Art

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