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Biography

Read History with History of Art at Cambridge University, then 5 years in the wine trade. 1997-2003: obtained MA and Phd in History of Art from University College, London. MA focused on the English Futurism of CRW Nevinson (1913-1916); PhD explored the image of the British soldier, or 'Tommy', in the First World War Art of Nevinson, Eric Kennington and Charles Sargeant Jagger c.1915-1925.

2004-2009: researched book and exhibition on life and work of sculptor Dora Gordine (1895-1991) whose studio home of Dorich House, Kingston Vale, is now owned by Kingston University.

Am currently nearing end of my first year of research as part of a 3-year AHRC Early Career Fellowship into the life and work of Anglo-Welsh sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones (1913-1996). To date this has involved interviewing several of his former students as well as studio assistants in London and the South-East of England. I have also made research trips to the numerous archives which hold material on Roberts-Jones. Am presently working on the organization of exhibitions to explore facets of Roberts-Jones career to be held 2014 at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and at the Henry Moore Institute for the Study of Sculpture, Leeds.

Early last year I completed research for an art exhibition and a monograph exploring the nature of courage in wartime and the Second World War portraiture of Eric Kennington. The exhibition, comprising 40 pastel drawings and lithographic prints, opened at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, north London, in June 2011 and closes mid May 2012.

I have retained a keen interest, from my time at Cambridge, in the social, political and military history of the First World War. In October last year, for example, I was invited to give a paper on Winston Churchill and British Policy towards North Russia and the Eastern Baltic at a conference held at the School of International Relations, State University of St. Petersburg, Russia. Presently, I am also co-curating an exhibition on the sculptor Dora Gordine which will take place at the Adamson Eric Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, April-August 2012.

Related links

• Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture's Research

Research expertise

Research interests include: Art and the French Revolution; late 19th century French public sculpture; Futurism; German Expressionism; British Art in the early Twentieth Century (especially Vorticism and Unit One); Public Sculpture in Western Europe c.1900-1950's; British Art and the two World Wars; Commercial Art, Graphic Art and Advertising in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Publication due in 2012:
Monograph: The Spirit of Faith: The Sculpture of John Bunting (John Bunting Foundation/Freestyle, London, May 2012).

Teaching areas & responsibilities

Themes in the History of Art (BA level module for Dr. N. Tromans)

Materialising Histories I: Images, Objects and Environments (MA level Module for Dr. N. Tromans)

History of the Art Market (MA Level Module, Arts Market Appraisal for Dr. N. Tromans)

Professional activity

• 2012 - presentBritish Section, International Association of Art Critics
• 2012 - presentBritish Section, International Society for WWI Studies
• 2012 - presentAdvisor on Artistic Matters, T.E. Lawrence Studies Group

Educational and professional qualifications

• 2003PhD in History of Art University College, London
• 1997MA in History of Art University College, London
• 1992BA in History St John's College, Cambridge

Conferences & events

Conference/Symposia Papers Given, 2004-2012:

'Steel-Plated Savages: Hyper-Masculinity and Hysteria in the British Art of the First World War' for Symposium 'The Great War Reconsidered', Institute of Advanced Historical Studies, University of Bristol, April 2004.

'An Unsettling Aura of Inscrutability': Imperialism, Racial Stereotyping and the Construction of the 'Exotic' by British Women Sculptors during the 1920's and '30's' at Annual Conference of Association of Art Historians, University of Bristol, April 2005.

'Touching Civilisation in its Tender Mood': Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Art in the Henri Gaudier-Brzeska-Edward Wadsworth Correspondence of 1914-1915' at the Seventh Annual Conference of the Modernist Studies Association of America, Loyola University, Chicago, November 2005.

'Men with libido on the wing': Portraiture, Constructions of the Masculine 'Other' and British Imperialism between the World Wars' for Conference 'What is Masculinity? How Useful is it as a Historical Category?' Birkbeck College, University of London, May 2008.

'Manifold Instruments of Carnage: Images of Weapons Technology and Imaginings of First World War Combat in the Royal Artillery Memorial (1921-1925) of Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1934)' for Conference 'Language and the Scientific Imagination', 11th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, University of Helsinki, Finland, July 2008.

'A hysterical hulloo-balloo about motor cars? The Vorticist Critique of Futurism, 1914-19' for Conference 'Back to the Futurists: European Avant-Gardes 1909-2009', Queen Mary College, University of London, July 2009.

'For the People's Good': Hans Schleger, Poster Design and British National Identity from the Age of Anxiety to the Age of Austerity' for Conference 'Transnationalism and Visual Culture in Britain: Émigrés and Migrants, 1933-1956', Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, September 2009.

Paper: 'Know The Face of Thine Enemy: The Portrayal of German Prisoners of War by Official British War Artists, 1917-1919' for Conference 'Creativity Behind Barbed Wire: Prisoners of War in the Twentieth Century', McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, March 2010.

'The Hallucination of the Machine: Futurism and Combat in the Great War Imagery of C.R.W. Nevinson and Gino Severini c.1914-1916' for Panel 'Comparative Futurism' within the 41st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, April 2010.

'Broken Warriors, Tortured Souls': Constructions of Physical and Psychological Trauma in the First World War art of Eric Kennington; William Orpen and C.R.W. Nevinson, c.1916-1919', for 'Exploring The Edge of Trauma', 7th Cultural Intersections International Colloquium, Edward James Foundation, West Dean, Chichester, May 2010.

'Clockwork Revolutionaries: Vorticism, Industry and British National Identity' for Panel 'When Low Became High: The British Avant-Garde of 1910-14' for Annual Conference of the European Network of Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, September 2010.

'Constructing a Chinese Puzzle Universe': Edward Wadsworth's Vorticist Vision of Industrial Yorkshire' for International Conference 'The Vorticists; Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-1918', The Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, North Carolina, USA, October 2010.

'A New Form of Sculpture for England: British Monumental Sculpture Between the Wars and the Struggle for Realism' for Conference 'The New British Sculpture: Reviving the Persistence of an Idea, 1850 to the Present Day', Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, February 2011.

'Strident Supermen'? Portraiture, National Identity and the Image of the Hero in Official British War Art of the Second World War' for Conference 'Art and the World Wars', Vilnius University, Lithuania, May 2011.

'The Ordinary and the Extraordinary: Portraiture and British Official War Art during the Second World War' for Conference 'The Second World War: Popular Culture and Cultural Memory', University of Brighton, July 2011.

'Combating the Contagion: Winston Churchill and Russia in 1919' for Conference 'The Legacy of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles', School of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University, Russia, October 2011.

'Waking in Valhalla: Eric Kennington and the Image of British Servicemen, 1940-45' for Symposium 'British Art and Culture during the Second World War', Department of History of Art, University of St. Andrews, October 2011.

'In the Shadow of Titans: Ivor Roberts-Jones, Franta Belsky, Oscar Nemon and the Legacy of the Second World War' for the Symposium 'New Perspectives on Post-War Art in Britain: Cross-Cultural Engagements', Austrian Cultural Forum, London, March 2012.

'Dad's Army or New Model Army? Eric Kennington's 'Britain's Home Guard Project' (1943-43) and British Military Identity' for Conference 'Fighting for Britain: Negotiating Identities in Britain during the Second World War', The Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars, University of Edinburgh, June 2012.

'A Whisper from the Ancients: Ancient and Modern in British Inter-War Public Memorial Sculpture' for 'Ancients and Moderns', 81st Conference of Anglo-American Historians, Senate House, University of London, July 2012.

'The Fall of Icarus: Martial Masculinity and the Image of the Fighter Pilot in Official British War Art of the Second World War' for Conference 'War and Memory in the Twentieth Century', Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, September 2012.

'Gentle Lessons for the Nation? Murals in Britain and the Two World Wars c.1910-1945' for Conference 'Murals in Britain, 1920-1970: Revisions, Revelations and Risks', organised by the Twentieth Century Society and the Fine Art Society, Morley College, London, March 2013.

'The Face of Death/Faces of the Dead: Imagery of those 'Killed in Action' in British Memorials of the First World War' for the British Art Network Seminar Series, Tate Britain, April 2013.

'Keeping it Real but Not Socialist Realism? Kenneth Clark and the Euston Road Group' for 'Kenneth Clark and Art Writing', Tate Britain, London, May 2013.

Public Talks and Lectures, 2004-2012:

'Visual Excitement and Delight: Edward Wadsworth and the Challenge of Modernism', Osborne Samuel Gallery, London, October 2006.

'The Only Permanent Thing In Life Is Change: Edward Wadsworth and Abstract Art in Britain during the 1930's'. Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, October 2006.

'The Vortex of Fear: Gaudier-Bzeska, Vorticism, Primitivism and the Tyranny of the Machine', Kettle's Yard Gallery, University of Cambridge, February 2007.

'Exuberant Realism: The Sculpture of Dora Gordine in 1920's Tallinn, Paris and London', KUMU (Estonian National Museum of Art), Tallinn, Estonia, February 2008.

'Primitivism, European Sculpture and the Commemoration of the First World War' for 'Traces of Conflict' seminar series, History of Art Department, Bristol University November 2008.

Contribution to BBC Radio 3 programme Rebellion and Fear: Artists and the Great War, broadcast 9 November 2008.

'Looking Heroism in the Face: The Image of the British Soldier, or 'Tommy', in British Art of the First World War', National Army Museum, London, February 2009.

Contribution regarding Dora Gordine for BBC Radio 4 programme Woman's Hour, broadcast 10 February 2009.

'Marinetti's Solitary English Disciple: C.R.W. Nevinson. Futurism and the First World War', for Symposium 'Modernism and the Politics of Dissent', Invited Lecture, Faculty of Art History and Visual Studies, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, March 2009.

'Reasons to be Cheerful': Public Morale and London Underground Posters of the Second World War', London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, March 2011.

'My Beloved Adopted Land: Edward McKnight Kauffer and England', Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, December 2011.

'Portraits Like Bombs': Eric Kennington and the Second World War', National Army Museum, London, January 2012.

'Dora Gordine's Artistic Heroes and Villains', Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, January 2012.

'A Passion for Seeing': Rediscovering the Portraiture of Eric Kennington (1888-1960)' for the National Portrait Gallery, London, February 2012.

'Drawing Wizards: Eric Kennington and the Royal Air Force, 1940-1942', Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, April 2012.

'Jacob Epstein's Portrait of Joseph Conrad', Society of Portrait Sculptors, London, May 2012.

'A Weird and Eerie Beauty: Avant-Garde Artists and the First World War', Cheltenham Town Hall, Cheltenham Music Festival, July 2012.

'An Incomparable War Leader in an Age Without Heroes: Ivor Roberts-Jones and the Image of Winston Churchill', Institute for Art History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, October 2012.

'The Warrior's Mask': The Image of the Hero in British War Art of the Second World War, Imperial War Museum, London, November 2012.

'A Fractured Friendship: Winston Churchill and Czechoslovakia, 1918-1948', for the British Czech and Slovak Association, Embassy of the Czech Republic, London, April 2013.

'Discordant Notes: Yehudi Menuhin, Portraiture and Ivor Roberts-Jones, 1966-67', Society of Portrait Sculptors, Cork Street, London, May 2012.

Exhibitions

Guest Curator for The Graphic Art of Eric Kennington, The Strang Print Room, University College London, October-December 2001 (40 works).

Guest Curator for exhibition Blasting the Future! Vorticism in Britain 1910-20 held at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, February-April 2004 (50 works) and at the Whitworth Gallery, University of Manchester (110 works), May-July 2004.

Guest Curator for The Rhythm of Things: Edward Wadsworth, Paintings and Drawings, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London, September-October 2006 (50 works).

Co-Curator (with Brenda Martin) of Dora Gordine: Sculptor, Artist, Designer Retrospective Exhibition at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University and Kingston-upon-Thames Municipal Museum, February-May 2009 (88 sculptures in bronze and plaster and charcoal drawings).

Guest Curator for The Face of Courage: Eric Kennington, Portraiture and the Second World War, Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, London June 2011-May 2012 ((52 pastel drawings, lithographs and posters).

Guest Co-Curator (with Brenda Martin) of Dora Gordine, Adamson Eric Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, April-August 2012 (16 bronze sculptures).

Consultancy

Occasional Consultant for Sotheby's and Christies Auction Houses, London, Osborne Samuel, London and the Fine Art Society, London.

Grants, funding and awards

• 2011Appointed a non-stipendiary Honorary Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute for the Study of Sculpture
• 2010Elected a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA)
• 2010Awarded £167,587 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to work on a study of sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones (1913-1996).
• 2010Awarded £6000 by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art to enable the publication of The Face of Courage: Eric Kennington, Portraiture and
• 2009Elected Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, London.
• 2008Awarded £5000 by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art to facilitate publication of Subtlety and Strength: The Drawings of Dora Gordine.
• 20042 year AHRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship to research the sculpture and career of Dora Gordine.

Research groups & programmes

• Visual & Material Culture Research Centre

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Publications