History of Art at Bristol
Our expertise spans from the medieval to the contemporary.
About us
Research in the Department of History of Art at Bristol embraces a rich diversity of interests. Our work encompasses visual material extending from South Asia through the Arab world and into Europe and the Americas. In historical terms our interests range from medieval material culture through to contemporary art.
In the midst of this diversity, however, there are several common strands running through our research environment: Cross-cultural exchange; Bodies; Discourse on media; Heritage culture and Environmental Humanities. Find out more about these themes below.
Research stories
Here is a a round-up of some of the latest research and projects coming out of the Department of the History of Art:
Raqib Shaw’s Travelling US Exhibitions
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West is Guest Curated by Dr Zehra Jumabhoy, Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Bristol, and co-organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. The show takes its title from Rudyard Kipling’s 1887 Ballad of East and West. Born in Calcutta, Shaw grew up in Kashmir and now lives in London. In his exhibition of dreamlike self-portraits and hybrid sculptures East and West ‘meet’ in art to remarkable effect, drawing on the artist’s multi-cultural past and present. Shaw’s first major presentation in the US, the show will travel to four venues across the country.
The exhibition first opened at the Frist Museum on September 14, 2023 and will be on view at the Gardner Museum from February 15 through May 12, 2024. From Boston, it will head to two additional museums: The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas from June 9 through September 2, 2024 and then the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California from November 15, 2024 through March 20, 2025.
Dr Zehra Jumabhoy specialises in South Asian art and her research focuses on the relationship between visual culture and Empire.
To the right is an image of the exhibition, Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West, Hostetter Gallery, February 6 - June 4, 2024. Photo courtesy Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Rasheed Araeen: Conscious Forms at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA)
This exhibition, curated by University of Bristol art historians Dr Zehra Jumabhoy and Dr Elizabeth Robles with Dr Kathryn Johnson, Head of Exhibitions at the RWA, brings the pioneering work of Rasheed Araeen to Bristol for the first time.
Araeen’s take on ideas of British identity, belonging and migration, is fearless and original. Full of joy and at the same time provocative and challenging, this is work that demands to be seen, heard, and experienced.
Dr Elizabeth Robles is the Director of the Centre for Black Humanities, which seeks to foster the broad range of research around the artistic and intellectual work of people of African descent. The centre is an international hub for Black Humanities research in the heart of Bristol.
To the left is an image of Sharbati, 1973-2013, by Rasheed Araeen. Courtesy of Grosvenor Gallery, London.
Reliquary Tabernacles in Fourteenth-Century Italy by Beth Williamson
Professor Beth Williamson's latest book is a ground-breaking study of the enigmatic and unique tabernacles from fourteenth-century Italy, which for the first time combined relics and images.
Professor Williamson's current research interests include medieval religious and devotional practice, especially in relation to visual and aural culture. She concentrates particularly on the forms and functions of religious imagery, the relationships between liturgy, devotion, and visual culture, materials and materiality, and on sensory and bodily experience.
Decolonising the page
Dr Zeina Maasri is the principal investigator on 'Decolonising the Page', which investigates the significant, yet understudied, political role of graphic design and visual culture during processes of decolonisation and anti-imperialist liberation struggles from the 1950s to the 1980s
The project has received ARHC funding and will build collaborative research networks and produce academic, creative and digital humanities outputs which advance knowledge in the fields of Art and Design History and Middle East Studies and directly benefit academics, creative practitioners and the living communities for whom this constitutes an important cultural heritage of immediate relevance.
To the left is an image from Elias Khoury’s Abwab el-madina (The Gates of the City 1981), designed and illustrated by Kamal Boullata.
Pioneering the field of the visual culture of sport
Professor Mike O'Mahony's research and publications focus on the visual culture of sport and the Olympic Games. This has extended his original research interests in representations of sport and physical culture in official and unofficial Soviet art to the wider international arena.
The the right is an image of Eric Ravilious's triptych entitled Tennis from 1930, from Bristol City Museum.
Other research from the department
Find out more about research being carried out in the department by our following academics:
Research themes:
In the midst of our diversity, there are several common strands running through our research environment:
Departmental interests also cluster around the body as a site of investigation. This research engages with the contribution of visual culture to fundamental issues such as race and gender, as well as focussing on specific questions around the depiction of the sporting body, for example, or bodily extremes such as suffering and pain. Through this broad theme, many colleagues also engage with issues around the senses and sensation.
In the context of our individual specialisms in particular media, such as collage, sculpture, and prints (the latter in relation our teaching collection of historic prints), the department has a strong research interest in how media have been differentiated according to historical contexts and in relation to wider categories, such as material culture.
The department has connections with a number of heritage partners in the south west and beyond, such as the National Trust. These partnerships provide an impetus for research, particularly work involving collaboration with heritage professionals, which extends in some cases to collaborative doctoral awards with external partners.
Finally, an emerging area of research is on the place of visual culture in the environmental humanities. Our faculty is home to the Centre for Environmental Humanities and – particularly in the context of the heritage partnerships mentioned above – members of staff in the department are increasingly extending their research into this field.