Sculpture Studies
Our expertise covers all aspects of sculpture – from Egyptology and Assyriology through to the modern, postmodern, and contemporary eras.
We are active in all areas of theoretical and historical sculpture studies; we pursue significant and original research that draws from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and historiographic and methodological perspectives.
We enjoy with internationally significant centres of sculptural display and study. These include the nearby , the and the .
Image: Tate, London 2019.
Related links
- Sculpture trail map (PDF
, 903kb) - A campus sculpture trail produced by History of Art students Joelle Warmbrunn, Tascha von Uexkull and Lily Cheetham, and Carlos Gonzalez Diaz (Computer Science). - Art on campus
Sculpture in York
York is uniquely situated in Britain as a hub for sculptural studies. Our research draws upon the remarkable wealth of resources available in York and nearby, which include:
- Displays of European and North American sculpture from 1945 to the present, including the modernist sculpture of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.
- Collections of classical and neo-classical works, accumulated during the 18th and 19th centuries in the great country houses of the region.
- Collections of sacred sculpture in York Minster and parish churches across the city and county.
- A premier location for those seeking to combine the study of medieval sculpture with first-hand acquaintance of the objects themselves.
People
- Professor Tim Ayers Monumental art of the middle ages
- Dr James Boaden Sculpture in American post-war art; Sculpture and experimental film
- Professor Whitney Davis Worldwide rock art; Modernism and classical Greek sculpture
- Professor Jason Edwards The global context of British sculpture 1760-1960
- Professor Jane Hawkes Late antique and early medieval sculpture; Historiography of early sculpture
- Professor Helen Hills Baroque sculpture, especially reliquaries and dead saints
- Dr Teresa Kittler Postwar Italian avant-garde sculpture
- Professor Amanda Lillie Italian renaissance sculpture
- Professor Richard Marks (Emeritus Professor) Late medieval and byzantine sculpture
- Professor Christopher Norton (Emeritus Professor) Medieval sculpture, particularly in York Minster
- Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein Northern European woodcarving
- Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn Modern receptions of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture
- Professor Michael White The European avant-gardes
Current Students
- William Mead Cheek
Anglo-Saxon architectural sculpture in its social, aesthetic, and theological context - Izabella Gill-Brown
British Victorian Busts - Sammi Scott The Novelty of Reproduction: Translating Fine Art into Two-and-a-Half-Dimensions in the Long Nineteenth Century
Past Students
- Cherissa Casey Sacred skulls, textiles, and medieval veneration: exploring the Holy Head reliquaries of Cologne
- Martha Cattell Bone and Oil: The Long Nineteenth-Century Visual and Material Cultures of Whaling (AHRC funded CDA)
- Koching (Ellen) Chao The spatial-visual capacity of public sculpture, and its influence on spectators’ sensibility to spatial configuration in Piazza della Signoria, Florence
- Charlotte Davis The approaches of key carvers active in post-Restoration England: Francis Bird, Caius Gabriel Cibber, Grinling Gibbons, and Edward Pierce
- Amanda Doviak At Cross Purposes? Sacred and Secular Figural Iconographies of the High Cross in the Northern Danelaw, c. 850-1000
- Megan Henvey The Northern Group of Irish High Crosses: Simply a Geographical Term?
- Rebecca Mellor Impact of 19th century museum display practices on modern interpretation of Roman erotic art
Research interests
We are keen to develop research at Masters, doctoral and post-doctoral level in the following areas:
- Post-1945 modern and contemporary sculpture, and related art
- Sculpture in American post-war art
- Relationships between sculpture and experimental film
- 20th-century modernism in Europe and America
- English modernist sculpture
- The Lady Lever sculpture collection
- The sculpture of the Gothic Revival
- Pre-Raphaelite and the New Sculpture
- 18th-century sculpture
- Italian Renaissance sculpture
- Italian Baroque sculpture / architecture / decoration (inter-relationships and possibilities)
- Late 14th to early 16th-century sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands
- 12th to 15th-century sculpture and monumental art in Britain and Northwest Europe
- The presentation and display of early medieval sculpture
- The historiography of early medieval sculpture
- The iconography of early medieval sculpture in Britain and Ireland
Related links
- Sculpture trail map (PDF , 903kb) - A campus sculpture trail produced by History of Art students Joelle Warmbrunn, Tascha von Uexkull and Lily Cheetham, and Carlos Gonzalez Diaz (Computer Science).
- Art on campus