Modern Classicisms seeks to engage, motivate and inspire – and across traditional disciplinary parameters. With this in mind, the project has run a competition, open to all students and staff at King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Working with the Cultural Institute at King’s, we asked students and staff to share their own contemporary takes on the ‘classical’ – whether as something beautiful to celebrate, or something oppressive to interrogate and challenge. We received 25 entries – testimony to the creativity, originality and innovation of our London community. Submissions drew on a range of media, including painting, drawing, film, photography, sculpture, music, textiles, poetry, illustrated story book, collage and computer game. The competition bridged the Courtauld and King’s. But it also brought together undergraduates, postgraduates and staff, and from across King’s: from the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, the King’s Business School, Chaplaincy and the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine.

Deciding upon the winners was a hugely difficult task – and we have included images (and in two cases recordings) of all entries in the gallery below. The winners were announced at the private view of The Classical Now on 1 March:

1st prize: Charlotte Ellery (King’s: Department of Classics [Undergraduate]): First Glance. Oil painting.

2nd prize: Rioghnach Sachs (King’s: Department of Comparative Literature): Hymn of Iphis (Lesbian Hymn I). 4-part choral composition, with organ and harpsichord, supplied with recording.

3rd prize (joint): a) Svitlana Biedarieva (Courtauld Institute of Art): Londonomachy. Digital print on HP wallpaper. b) Connie Bloomfield (King’s: Department of Classics): Venus Reconstructed. Sculpture.

Many congratulations not only to the winners, but to everyone who took part in the competition!

To download the flyer accompanying the competition display in Bush House Arcade (March/April 2018), click here.