Dr Teresa Kittler
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

• BA (UCL)
• MA (Courtauld Institute of Art)
• PhD (UCL)

Teresa Kittler is a lecturer in Modern and Contemporary art. Her research focuses on artistic practices from 1945 to present day, with a special interest in Italian postwar art, primarily on issues related to art and the environment and feminism. Since completing her PhD, she has been the recipient of fellowships from the British Academy/Leverhulme, the British School at Rome and the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA). She has also worked as Assistant Curator for the 10 Gwangju Biennale (2014).

Research

Projects

Teresa is currently working on a book project, titled Habitats: Art and the Environment Italy, 1945–1975, which examines artistic practice in Italy in the three decades following the Second World War, through the lens of habitat. This ecological concept, which encompassed models of both individual and collective dwelling, gained currency in the immediate postwar period, signalling a new approach to the environment.

The book asks how questions of habitation, ecology, landscape and temporality, and the availability of new and highly various synthetic and industrially produced materials shifted the parameters of artistic practice and visual culture over three decades. These shifts are traced from the turn toward sculptural environments in the postwar period right through to the rise of an environmental consciousness in the 1970s, mapping this narrative through key debates, central protagonists and crucial exhibitions.

Publications

Selected publications

• ‘Marisa Merz: Actions, Interactions and Performative Sculpture’, in Entrare Nell’Opera Christiane Meyerstoll (ed.) (Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, 2019) (forthcoming)
• ‘Lavorare nell’ombra’ in Marcello Rumma: fatti, reminiscenze, risonanze, Gabriele Guercio and Andrea Viliani (eds) (Museo d’arte contemporanea Donnaregina, 2019) (forthcoming)
• ‘Reimagining the family album: Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto (1969)’ in Feminism and Art in Postwar Italy: The Legacy of Carla Lonzi ed. by Giovanna Zapperi and Francesco Ventrella (London: Routledge, 2020) (forthcoming)
• ‘Forms of Thinking’, Art History, vol 40:1, 2018, pp.192–197.
• ‘Living Art and the Art of Living: Carla Accardi’s Tents (1965–1972)’ Oxford Art Journal (Special Issue: House, Work, Artwork: Feminism and Art History's New Domesticities), Vol. 40:1, pp.85–107.
• ‘Marisa Merz’s Untitled (Living Sculpture), 1966’ in Marisa Merz: The Sky is a Great Space. Butler, C. (ed.) (Los Angeles, Munich: Hammer Museum, University of California, Prestel/ Del Monico, 2017), pp. 229-245.
• ‘Bruno Munari's Environmental Awareness’ in Bruno Munari: The Lightness of Art. Antonello, P., Nardelli, M. & Zanoletti, M. (eds.) (Oxford; Peter Lang, 2017), pp.359–396.
• Gwangju Biennale 2014: Burning Down the House, exhib. cat, Jessica Morgan (ed), with contributions by Fatos Ustek, Emiliano Valdés, Teresa Kittler, Enna Bae.(Bologna: Damiani, 2015)
• ‘Outgrowing the Kitchen: Marisa Merz’s Untitled (Living Sculpture), 1966’, OBJECT: Graduate Articles and Reviews in Art History and Visual Culture, no.15, 2013, pp.52–77.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Made in Italy
• The Modernist Object
• The Feminist Avant-Garde

Postgraduate

• Adventures in the Anthropocene
• Art, Nature and the Environment in Italy
• Home, Habitat and Community

External activities

Overview

Exhibitions

• Assistant Curator, 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
• Curatorial Assistant, Tate Modern for Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan, 2011

Invited talks and conferences

Conferences organised

• 18 May 2018 Conference Organiser: Atmospheres, University of York, York
• 5 April 2014 BOOM! Growth, Form and Sustainable Bodies, UCL
• 12 March 2011 Conference Organiser: Arte Povera & Beyond, Milan, Turin, Rome, Italian Cultural Institute / Camden Arts Centre / UCL, London.

Conference papers

• 19 June 2019 Superstudio: Salvages of Historic Centres, Italia Vostra, Italia Nostra and the paradox of conservation, Lincoln College, University of Oxford
• 19 Feb. 2019 Invited Speaker: Italian-Society Sponsored Panel (CAA, New York)
• 10 June 2018 ‘Superstudio’s Apocalyptic Nature’, Nature-Architecture workshop, University of York
• 29 Nov 2017 ‘Una Specie di Convivio’, Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto, World Art Research Seminar, University of East Anglia, Norwich
• 10 June 2017 ‘Una Specie di Convivio’, Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto, Lifework, University College London
• 6 May 2017 Feminist Domesticities in Art and Art History, Raven Row Gallery, London
• 24 May 2016 Bruno Munari’s Environmental Awareness British School at Rome, Rome
• 10 Dec. 2015 Carla Lonzi: Teach In, Raven Row Gallery, London
• 3 July 2015 Living Differently, Seeing Differently: Carla Accardi’s Temporary Structure, House, Work, Artwork: Feminism and Art History's New Domesticities, The University of Birmingham
• 10 Feb. 2015 Reimagining the family album: Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto (1969), Untying the Knot, CIMA, New York
• 6 Feb. 2015 Reimagining the family album: Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto (1969), The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
• 12 Sept. 2014 Figuring Out Paolini given at Giulio Paolini Symposium, Whitechapel Gallery, London
• 5 April 2014 Home as Habitat: Piero Gilardi’s Tappeti Natura BOOM! Growth, Form and Sustainable Bodies, UCL
• 28 Oct. 2013 Outgrowing the Kitchen: Marisa Merz’s Untitled (Living Sculpture) (1966), Serpentine Gallery, London
• 21 June 2013 Conference Panel Chair: Object Lessons, UCL, London
• 23 March 2013 Living Art and the Art of Living: Piero Gilardi’s Nature Rugs Collaborative Effects, Symposium, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham
• 29 March 2012 From Kitchen to Nightclub, Marisa Merz’s Untitled (Living Sculpture), 38th AAH Annual Conference, The Open University, Milton Keynes
• 20 Oct. 2011 Marisa Merz’s Untitled (Living Sculpture) 1966, Postgraduate Research Seminar, UCL, London