NCH/Northeastern University, London

I joined the Art History Department at the New College of Humanities at an exciting moment in the College’s history. NCH is now owned by Northeastern University in Boston and they send their first-year students to study abroad in London. NCH (now Northeastern London) offers major and minor undergraduate degrees in Art History. My students (from Britain and around the world) combine Art History with History, English, Law, Philosophy, Politics or Economics. The courses I teach relate to American and European art c.1750-1900 and you can find my profile page here: https://www.nchlondon.ac.uk/faculty/dr-kate-grandjouan/ . We are based in St Katherine’s Dock next to the Tower of London with wonderful views over the Thames and Tower Bridge. You can find out more about Northeastern London here: https://www.nchlondon.ac.uk

Associate Head of Art History and Assistant Lecturer

Some of the courses I have been teaching since 2019:

Theory & Methodology for Art History: a BA2 (Level 5): This course charts the different theories that have shaped the interpretation of aestheticised objects, whether they be paintings, prints or drawings or 3-dimensional artefacts such as sculptures, carvings or masks. In addition to the theoretical writings that have become central to the practice of art history, we focus on ekphrastic methods that have developed in tandem with developments in other disciplines, such as literary theory, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, post-coloniality and conservation. Overall, the course enables students to understand the various ways in which artists, critics, scholars, art historians and curators have interpreted and are interpreting ancient, modern and contemporary art.

European Painting from Chardin to Matisse: a BA2 (Level 5) this course provides a wide-ranging introduction to the evolution of European painting during a period when Paris established itself as the nerve centre of the ‘avant-garde’. Visual subjects are related to broader patterns of consumption and tied to the development of mass media, the rise of industrialisation and imperial expansion. Overall, the course demonstrates how the period witnessed significant transformations in the ways in which paint on canvas was being used and understood.

The Elegiac Landscape: a BA2 (Level 5) explores landscape as a physical place or as a depiction in the visual arts (painting, prints, photo and film) used to symbolise ideas about transience and loss. Studied against the backdrop of Enlightenment and Empire, Romantic literature and philosophy, the elegiac landscape provides a framework for examining the nationalist struggles that resulted in modern warfare and industry. Themes analysed include classical ruins, lost worlds, the aesthetics of decay, memorial culture and garden design. Artists, photographers and film-makers studied include Richard Wilson, Hubert Robert, JMW Turner, Paul Nash, Cecil Beaton, Dan McCullin, Alexander Sukorov, Terrence Malick.

American Masters: a BA3 (Level 6) course tracks the birth and development of an ‘American’ art from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century We chart the interactions between American and European art worlds and evaluate how art in America responded to politics – the colonial period, the exploration of the western territories and the Civil War – and trace the growing sophistication of America’s art market and institutions.