ABOUT
What is it about ancient Greek and Roman art that still captivates and provokes the modern imagination? How can contemporary art help us to see the classical tradition with new eyes? And what can modern-day responses – set against the backdrop of others over the last two millennia – tell us about our own cultural preoccupations?
Modern Classicisms sets out to explore these and other questions by bringing together classicists, art historians, critics and artists. The project commenced in August 2017: activities have included a workshop on 10 November 2017, and an exhibition in spring 2018. This project comes about thanks to the generous support of Christian Levett and the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, with additional support from the Department of Classics and Faculty of Arts and Humanities at King’s College London. King’s is proud to be working with other external collaborative partners, including the Courtauld Institute of Art and Minerva (The International Review of Ancient Art and Archaeology).
RESEARCH TEAM
Michael Squire
Michael Squire is Professor of Classical Art in the Department of Classics at King’s. He has published widely on Graeco-Roman art and its reception, and has edited recent volumes on Lessing’s Laocoon (Oxford University Press, 2017), The Frame in Classical Art (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and The Art of Hegel’s Aesthetics (Wilhelm Fink, 2017). A selection of Michael’s publications can be found here.
Ruth Allen
Ruth Allen is Post-Doctoral Fellow in Modern Classicisms at King’s.
Ruth completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge (‘A cultural history of Roman engraved gemstones – their iconography, material, and function’). She received a MA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge. She works broadly on Roman visual culture, with a focus on Roman adornment; she is also interested in materiality, corporeality, framing and space, as well as the reception, collection and display of Greek and Roman art from antiquity to today. As a doctoral student, she co-curated two public exhibitions on the relationship between classical and contemporary art; she has also worked at the British Museum in London and the Museum of Classical Archaeology in Cambridge. From September 2017, she will be joining the Getty Villa as a curatorial intern.
James Cahill
James Cahill is Post-Doctoral Fellow in Modern Classicisms at King’s.
James recently submitted his University of Cambridge doctorate on the relationship between contemporary British art and classical antiquity. He has contributed to publications including Art in America, Apollo, The Burlington Magazine, Elephant, The Erotic Review, frieze, the TLS and The White Review, and has co-curated exhibitions of ancient and contemporary art in London and Cambridge. James is the author and co-author of monographs including Richard Patterson (Anomie Publishing, 2017), Maggi Hambling: War Requiem and Aftermath (London: Unicorn Press, 2015 – coinciding with an exhibition at the Cultural Institute at King’s). He is the consulting editor of a major new book on classical mythology in western art, forthcoming from Phaidon. Other current projects include an anthology of interviews with contemporary artists, to be published in 2018 (Laurence King Publishing).
STUDENT AMBASSADORS
Caroline Mackenzie
Caroline Mackenzie is studying for the MA in Classical Art and Archaeology in the Department of Classics at King’s College London.
Belinda Martin Porras
Belinda Martin Porras is studying for the MA in Classical Art and Archaeology in the Department of Classics at King’s College London.
Abigail Walker
Abigail Walker is a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Classics at King’s College London.