Sarah Wilson is an art historian and curator whose interests extend from post-war and Cold War Europe and the USSR to contemporary global art. She was educated at the University of Oxford (BA English Literature) and at the Courtauld, where she took her MA and PhD degrees. She joined The Courtauld鈥檚 faculty in 1982. 听She was Head of the Modern and Contemporary Section at the Courtauld from 2005-Spring 2008 and has been Head of Diploma programmes during 2014-2015.
In 2010-11, with Mellon Professor Boris Groys (New York University) Sarah Wilson initiated the MA course, 鈥楪lobal Conceptualism鈥, which links Anglo-American conceptual art and European lineages stemming from Mallarm茅, Duchamp and structural linguistics, with conceptual art practices originating in Moscow or taken up beyond the 鈥榝irst鈥 world. 听She takes an active role in CCRAC, the Cambridge-Courtauld Russian Art Centre, with the contemporary exhibition and talks programme of Calvert 22 which reaches out to Russia and Eastern Europe, and with Pushkin House in London.听听 听From 2013 she expanded 听her 鈥楪lobal Conceptualism鈥 MA remit with an interest in modern and contemporary Asia. 听In 2014 she was appointed to the curatorial team of the 1st Asian Biennale (China-Guangzhou).
Recognised as 迟丑别听 international English-language expert on Post-War European art, 听including French Stalinism, 听neo-Marxism and the arts, 听regularly lectures and teaches in Paris 鈥 as 听Professor at Paris-IV Sorbonne ( 2002-4), with Serge Lemoine 听(former director of the Mus茅e d鈥橭rsay) when she also produced a report 听on the Institut National d鈥橦istoire de l鈥橝rt, commissioned by the French Minister for Research; at the Ecole Nationale Sup茅rieure des Beaux-Arts (2006-7);听 and at the Universit茅 de Versailles-Saint Quentin where she held a chaire d鈥檈xcellence (2012-13). She has served on doctoral juries for Paris-Sorbonne 1 and IV, VIII, the Universities of Lille and Bordeaux. In 1997 she was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for services to French art and culture.
Sarah鈥檚 听major publications include : Paris, Capital of the Arts,1900-1968 (Royal Academy, 2002), a substantial 濒颈惫谤别鈥揷补迟补濒辞驳耻别 and the standard publication on the subject, and The Visual World of French Theory: Figurations. A second volume: The Visual World of French Theory II: interventions听(in preparation) will challenge the 鈥Figurations鈥 volume, with an emphasis on conceptual art, performance and film.
At the Courtauld, the doctoral and MA theses Sarah Wilson has supervised now constitute a unique English-language archive in the field of post-1945 European and Soviet/Russian art history, many leading to important publications. 听Former students are a source of particular pride. Many now hold prominent positions in academia, museums and galleries in Britain including: Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the British Council, London galleries such as the Hauser and Wirth, Timothy Taylor and White Cube, at the Universities of London, Cambridge, and Bristol ; and beyond the UK: the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, the Phoenix Museum of Art, the French Ministry of Culture, the Kunsthalle, Bremen, and the University of Amsterdam.
PhD Supervision
Current
- Jessica Eisenthal, 鈥楾emporal Dissonance in Contemporary Israeli Photography and Video鈥
- , 鈥楢rt in Action: Christoph Schlingensief鈥檚 Opera Village Africa and its Relation to Contemporary Art Practice鈥
- , 鈥楩ather and Son, Pivarov and Pepperstein鈥
- ,听鈥楲ee Seung-Taek: Reconfiguring Avant-garde Art in Post-war Korea鈥
Recently completed
- Hui-Kyung An, 鈥業dentities Contested: Contemporary Korean Art and its Exhibitions, 1961-1975鈥 (2015)
- Aliya Abakayeva de Tiesenhausen, 鈥楽ocialist Realist Orientalism? Depictions of Soviet Central Asia, 1934-1954鈥 (2010)
- Rakhee Balaram, 鈥楩emmes R茅volutionnaires: Women and art in 1970s France鈥 (2009)
- Matthew Barr, 鈥楳ichel Foucault and Visual Art, 1954-1988鈥 (2007)
- Elizaveta Butakhova, 鈥楢-YA magazine: Soviet unofficial art between Moscow, Paris and New York, 1976-1986鈥 (2015)
- Martina Caruso, 鈥楳iseria, Misericordia, Mascolinit脿: Italian Humanist Photography, 1932-1959鈥 (2012)
- Nicholas Cullinan, 鈥楾he Archeology of Knowledge: Excavating Arte Povera鈥 (2010)
- Jacopo Galimberti, 鈥楥ollective Art: Politics and Authorship in 1960s Western Europe,1957-1968鈥 (2012)
- Mireya E. Lewin, 鈥楢ntoni T脿pies and cultural identity: between the national 听 and the international鈥 (2009)
- Hester Westley, 鈥楾raditions and Transmissions: St Martin鈥檚 Sculpture Department, 1960-1969鈥 (2007)
- Nadim Samman, 鈥楤etween the Gulag and the Guggenheim: (post) Soviet artists and New York in the 1980s and 1990s鈥 (2011)
- Sylwia Serafinowicz-Weso艂owska, 鈥楳ore than Documentation: Photography from the People鈥檚 Republic of Poland, 1965-1972鈥 (2015)
Research interests
- Post war Eastern and Western European art
- Cold War heritages including in USSR/Russia and China
- Contemporary art and its memories
- Academies and avant-gardes, 20th听and 21st听centuries
Recent publications
Books
- Picasso, Marx and Socialist Realism in France, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2013
- The Visual World of French Theory: Figurations, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2010
- Matisse, Barcelona, Ediciones Poligrafam,听2009
Essays, articles and reviews
- 听鈥楬eureux hasards conceptuels: Jacques Monory en Angleterre鈥,听Jacques Monory, Paris, Fonds Leclerc,听2015, pp. 107-111
- 鈥楶ost-colonial Rococo: Yinka Shonibare MBE plays Fragonard鈥, in Melissa Hyde, Katie Scott eds.听Rococo Echo: Art, Theory and Historiography, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 2014, pp. 313-328
- Des meilleurs ennemis au 鈥淛ardin d鈥檃mour鈥:,听Art et artistes 脿 Paris et 脿 Londres, Nos meilleurs ennemis : L鈥檈ntente culturelle franco-britannique revisit茅e听.Diana Cooper-Richet and Michel Rapoport eds., Paris, Atlande, pp. 81-99
- 鈥楰lossowski our Contemporary鈥, foreword to Herv茅 Castanet, 鈥Pierre Klossowski. The Pantomime of Spirits鈥, J.B.Bullen ed., Cultural Interactions. Studies in the Relationship between the Arts, vol. 22, 2014, pp. ix-xxv.
- 鈥楾ears, Tirs, Ricochets鈥, Camille Morineau ed.,听Niki de Saint Phalle, Paris, R茅union des Mus茅es Nationaux, pp. 92-101, 359-360
- 鈥楯udit Reigl, of signs, of men and of angels, Julia Fab茅ni ed.,听Judit Reigl, Budapest, Ludwig Museum, pp. 68-93
- 鈥楢 very great sculptor: Germaine Richier鈥,听Germaine Richier, New York, Dominique L茅vy, Galerie Perrotin, pp. 10-17
- 鈥樷淒茅lit de t茅moignage鈥: Andr茅 Fougeron 脿 travers un si猫cle鈥, in听Bruno Gaudichon ed., Andr茅 Fougeron.听1913-1998.听Voil脿 qui fait probl猫me vrai, Roubaix, La Piscine / Montreuil, Gourcoff Gradenigo, pp. 25-59
- 鈥楲oyalty and Blood. Picasso鈥檚 FBI File鈥, in Jonathan Harris and Richard Koeck eds.,听Picasso and the Politics of Visual Representation :War and Peace in the era of Cold War and since, Liverpool University Press, Tate Livepool Critical Forum,听2013, 听pp. 110-124
- 鈥楤ergson before Deleuze: how to read informel painting, Charlotte de Mille and John Mullarky eds.,听Bergson and the Art of Immanence: Painting, Photography, Film, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2013, pp.80-93
- 鈥楲yotard, Monory: Postmodern Romantics鈥 (in Herman Parret ed. Jean-Fran莽ois Lyotard,听Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists vol VI, L鈥檃ssassinat de l鈥檈xp茅rience par la peinture听鈥撎Monory / The Assassination of Experience by Painting听鈥 Monory, Leuven, University of Leuven Press (updated version, bilingual), pp. 196-253
- 鈥楢rt, Artefact and Empire Thirty Glorious years in France鈥,听Oxford Art Journal, volume 36, issue 2, 2013, pp. 310-312 (book review)
- 鈥楾he Expanded Seam; the Song of the Shirt鈥,听Pip Culbert, Galerie Kamila Regent, Saignon-en-Luberon,听2012
- 鈥楥omintern spin doctor鈥 Willi M眉nzenberg, artiste en r茅volution,听1889-1940,听2008,听English Historical Review, vol. CXXVII , 526, June 2012, pp. 662-668
- 鈥楩rench socialist realism,1945-1970鈥, in Matthew Bown, Matteo Lafranconi eds.,听Socialist Realisms. Soviet Painting听1920-1970, Milan, Skira, 2012, pp. 247-253
- 鈥楳oscow Romantic exceptionalism : the suspension of disbelief鈥, Boris Groys ed.,听Moscow Symposium, Conceptualism revisited, e-flux journal,听New York, Sternberg Press, 听pp.102-123
- 鈥楽ilver Scales, Silver Ink, Quicksilver Traces: Lucia Joyce鈥; 鈥楾illy Losch, reaching for intersubjective frontiers鈥 (with Adrien Sina) in Sina ed.,听Feminine Futures Performance Dance War Politics and Eroticism, Dijon, Les Presses du R茅el, 2011, pp. 406-415, 416-418.
Recent/major grants
- 2012-2013听Marie Curie Actions 鈥 RBUCE-UP, Chaire d鈥檈xcellence, Universit茅 de Versailles-Saint Quentin, 鈥楪lobalisation before Globalisation: avant-gardes, academies, revolutions鈥
Other professional activities
- Curator, fifth 听Guangzhou Triennale/ first Asia Biennale GDMoA (China) 2015
- Member of Executive committee, AICA (International Association of Art Critics, British branch)
- Member of Advisory Board, Department of Art History, New European University, Saint Petersburg.
- Metamatic Research Initiative, Amsterdam