British Art Research Cluster (BARC)
Leader: Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn
BARC was founded in spring 2010 in order to consolidate existing research strengths in British art at the University of Bristol. Its formal inauguration took place on 8 November 2010, in which Professor Mark Hallett of the University of York gave a paper entitled ‘Making a Reputation: Joshua Reynolds in the 1750s’, with responses from Professors David Hopkins (Department of English) and Elizabeth Prettejohn (History of Art).
About the research cluster
'An English painting is as modern as a novel by Balzac' (Théophile Gautier, 1855)
Charles Blanc (art critic and founder of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts) called The Beguiling of Merlin, by Edward Burne-Jones, the 'most formidable painting' of the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878: 'There is a quintessence of the ideal, a sublimated poetry that seizes me at the heart'.
Modern or ideal? More like the novel, or more like poetry? The French critics present different perspectives on British art. They also show its striking impact in the international arena. That is in stark contrast to the conventional reputation of British art as insular and inward-looking, somehow apart from the mainstream development of the international art world.
The British Art Research Cluster (BARC) aims to explore British art in new ways: to place it in international and transnational perspectives, to question traditional interpretations, and to think afresh about the relations between the visual and the other arts. The Cluster supports research into British art of all periods, from the medieval to the contemporary, with particular emphasis on the ways in which British art has been interpreted, criticised, curated, and displayed. Its events and activities are organised by committees of staff and postgraduate students, and it collaborates with a wide range of museums and galleries.
Events for 2010/11
- Professor Prettejohn will deliver The Paul Mellon Lectures 2011 at the National Gallery of Art, Mondays 17 January to 14 February 2011: 'The National Gallery and the English Renaissance of Art' (see Paul Mellon Centre)
- Doctoral Students' Collaboration with The Courtauld Gallery: Life, Legend, and Landscape: Victorian Drawings from the Courtauld Collection, exhibition opening 17 February 2011 at The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, London, with a catalogue by postgraduate students from Bristol and the Courtauld (exhibition runs to 15 May 2011)
- 9 May 2011: Professor Michael Hatt and Dr Jason Edwards will give the Perry Lecture 2011 on their major research project, Displaying Victorian Sculpture
Staff committee
Postgraduate student committee and research areas
- Jon Cannon (English medieval church architecture)
- Emma Cowan (Victorian design at Tyntesfield)
- Lydia Edwards (Historical Realism in the Costume of Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s Productions 1898-1912)
- Rachel Flynn (The Artist as Archivist: The Graham and Kathleen Sutherland Foundation 1976-1989)
- Cora Gilroy-Ware (The Classical Nude in Romantic Britain)
- Colin Glen (The Artwork and Its Photographic Documentation)
- Catherine Hunt (The Depiction of Gloves c. 1400-1660)
- Sally-Anne Huxtable (Inward Worlds: Aestheticism and its Interiors, 1848-1900)
- Joanna Karlgaard (Frederick Sandys and Victorian Illustration)
- Eunmin Lim (Murray Marks, Chinese porcelain, and Renaissance bronzes)
- Elizabeth Robles (Costumes and Masks in Contemporary British Diasporic Art)
- Laurence Shafe (Charles Darwin and the Aesthetic Movement)
- Wendy Sijnesael (Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s Use of Antiquities)
- Megan Sleeper (Victorian art and science), Jennifer Spiers (Laura Knight)
- Peter Stilton (British Art 1957-1969: Science under the Spectre of Hiroshima and Sputnik)
- Claire Yearwood (The Mirror in Nineteenth-Century British Art)
Two of our students are supported by Collaborative Doctoral Awards from the Arts & Humanities Research Council:
- Rachel Flynn (with National Museum Wales – Amgueddfa Cymru)
- Cora Gilroy-Ware (with Tate Britain)
We are grateful for the generous support of an anonymous donor.