2024 has been a big year in Art History at the University of Sydney. In a good start, we were ranked #1 in Australia in the 2024 QS World Subject Rankings, an achievement that reflects our world-renowned academics and unique learning environment.
Peter Sedgley, Chromosphere, 1967 (detail), University Art Collection, PW1967.22.
Established in 1968 by the J. W. Power Bequest, the program continues to be a research and teaching powerhouse from first year’s introductory courses to global art histories in our Art History major, to the flagship postgraduate coursework programs in Art Curating, and Museum & Heritage Studies taught in partnership with the School of Humanities, and our prestigious postgraduate research degrees.
Teaching Highlights
In January, Mark Ledbury and Victoria Souliman took undergraduate students to Paris for two weeks in the glorious winter sunshine for our signature fieldwork unit. As one student commented, “[the unit] was incredibly rewarding in offering a real-world experience of art history… [and] gave an indication of what a career in art history could be.” Later in the year, Roger Benjamin took Honours students to the National Gallery of Australia to visit the Gauguin exhibition and to hear from Lucina Ward, senior curator of international art. Honours student Calum Boland wrote on this unique experience for the student-run blog GLAMatSydney.
Gerald McMaster, our visiting Terra Professor from Canada’s Red Pheasant Cree Nation, taught First Nations Art and made a significant contribution to our research engagement platform over 2023-24. Our undergraduate students studied a wide-range of units from foundational survey courses to those on the Renaissance, Australian, Asian, French, Islamic, and First Nations art, to cultures of design, art, empire and resistance, and art objects in the Chau Chak Wing Museum. In 2024, studies in Art Curating, and Museum & Heritage Studies were again taught in collaboration with leading institutions and art spaces across Sydney, immersing students in the professional world of galleries, museums, and cultural heritage. Studies range from the history, theory and practice of museums, galleries, and cultural heritage to units that take students into the world of biennales, Asian or Islamic art, or units on writing, ethics, art and crime, audiences, communities, objects and places, and the digital museum. Students were thrilled to see a new and exciting unit focusing on Art and the Moving Image designed and taught by Keith Broadfoot.
Electra Aitchison won the highly competitive Culture Plus Eloquence Prize held at the National Gallery of Victoria for which five students from across Australia competed with public talks on Nature & Art Nouveau, in France and Australia. Electra’s comparison of Berliet Villa & Babworth House won her a trip to Paris to meet art professionals, accommodation and mentoring sessions.
Our placement officer, Marina Grasso, worked with colleagues to place over 120 students in internships across Sydney, regional NSW and Victoria, and in China, England and Scotland, with Athens on the list in 2025. Internships remain a key experience for students in gaining industry experience, with alumni securing employment in the sector across Australia and internationally.
While we welcomed the arrival of Katrina Grant as a research fellow at the Power Institute, and Lilian Cameron who brings a wealth of experience from the UK and Sotheby’s Institute of Art we also farewelled Gerald McMaster (Visiting Terra Professor) and our wonderful colleague Stephen Gilchrist, who has taken up a position in Indigenous Studies, and as co-director of the Berndt Museum at the University of Western Australia. Jennifer Barrett continues her significant role as Pro-Vice Chancellor Indigenous (Academic), and director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence. We look forward to welcoming our second Terra Professor in 2025.
Research and Engagement
The Powerful Ideas: New Research in Art History series organised by Mary Roberts and supported by the Power Institute commenced with a paper from Gerald McMaster, followed by Ellie Buttrose on curating Archie Moore’s “kith and kin” at the Venice Biennale; Alexander Alberro from Columbia University,; Jung Joon Lee from the Rhode Island School of Design; Robert Brennan, who shortly takes up a position at the Courtauld Institute of Art; Rhiannon Paget from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Drisana Misra from Cornell University; and Emily Pugh from the Getty Research Institute. Staff and doctoral students also presented their latest research showing the diverse range of art history inquiry in our discipline such as Donna West Brett and Yvonne Low, and doctoral candidates India Urwin, Aiden Magro, and Robert Miller. Our research series benefits enormously from the work of Mary Roberts, and support from the Power Institute, with our sincere thanks to Mark Ledbury and Nicholas Croggon. In April, Katrina Liberiou from the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Nick Croggon and Mark Ledbury at the Power Institute and Photographic Cultures presented the final event in the Photography Falls Apart program, look out for more in 2025.
Art History academics are current recipients of three ARC grants including the rare DECRA won by Peyvand Firouzeh – Australia’s only continuing Islamic Art academic. Colleagues disseminated their research at conferences and in prestigious publications. Highlights include Peyvand Firouzeh who gave a paper at the “Arts of the Indian Ocean” conference in Toronto, Mary Roberts who spoke on Polish orientalist painter Stanislas Chlebowski at Yale, and Donna Brett who was invited to give a paper on Zeppelin raids at the Dangerous Crowds conference in Trento, Italy. Lilian Cameron wrote on Julie Rrap for Artist Profile; Yvonne Low wrote on Liu Kang, and with Phoebe Scott on modern art in South East Asia both in World Art; Chiara O’Reilly and Anna Lawrenson wrote on Australian regional galleries and climate disasters for the Humanities Research journal; Mark Ledbury published a book chapter on disappointing history painting and an article in the prestigious Burlington Magazine; Mary Roberts published an article for Society and Space on the Epistolary Interior, and Katrina Grant wrote on performance in the gardens of early-modern Rome. Colleagues were also awarded prestigious fellowships with Mary Roberts invited to the University of St Andrews as a Senior Global Fellow, and Donna Brett as Sloan Fellow in Photography, at Bodleian Libraries, the University of Oxford. Several colleagues also contributed articles to The Conversation, including Mark de Vitis’ take on pre-industrial Europe’s cold weather sleeping solutions and Roger Benjamin’s Conversation critique of Vincent Namatjira’s portrait series also featuring in the Australian Book Review.
The Schaeffer Fine Arts Library has been abuzz this year with the arrival of senior librarian Sajid Foazdar, who together with Nicholas Keyzer saw around 25,000 visits to the library this year, hosted two exhibitions — Matisse ~ Minotaur to Verve by Roger Benjamin and Stolen Press curated by Nicholas Croggon, and the Schaeffer Artist in Residency with renowned Sydney-based artist Simryn Gill. The library also launched a student internship program working on the Bernard Smith and artist book collections.
A special highlight was celebrating one of our esteemed Honorary Associates, Dr Alan Cholodenko who was recognised for his outstanding contributions to the University, admitting him as an Honorary Fellow Alan was a pivotal figure in the development of art and film history and theory at the University from 1978, including through the creation of the still thriving discipline of Film Studies.
We close the year with the Power Institute and Art History hosting a scholar in residence, Thanavi Chotpradit, and a wonderful interview between art history alumnus, Callum Gallagher and Mark de Vitis in our series on Alumni Profiles. Our teaching program for 2025 offers more exciting opportunities for our students and partners and you can read about this here, Art History, Art Curating, Museum & Heritage Studies.
Our teaching across our art history major and postgraduate programs, benefits hugely from our industry partners, who offer site visits and lectures, internships and mentoring, and partner with us in research and engagement. We extend our sincere thanks to you for your contribution in 2024 and your ongoing support.
We extend sincere gratitude to Roger Benjamin and Keith Broadfoot, who held the fort for the first six months of this year as Head of Discipline and Curriculum Head of Discipline respectively, and to colleagues, students, donors, generous alumni, and our valued sector partners who work with us in our numerous teaching, research and engagement activities.
Wishing you the best for the summer break and a Happy New Year for 2025.
Associate Professor Donna West Brett, Chair of Art History, and Professor Roger Benjamin, Acting Chair (Semester 1) and colleagues in the Discipline of Art History.
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