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 close relationships with internationally significant centres of sculptural display and study. These include the nearby Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Hepworth Wakefield and the Henry Moore Institute.
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