Lecture I: Contemporary Art in Scotland since 1988 I Monday, 17.4.2017, from 15:00-17:00, Lecture hall
This lecture focuses on contemporary art practice in Scotland in the post-industrial era. Starting in 1988 with the Glasgow Garden Festival, the lecture covers the “Glasgow Miracle” period of the early 1990s, considers crossovers between visual art and literary / film / musical cultures, and the growth of in the profile of Scottish art abroad, in the twenty first century.
Lecture II: An Ecology of Contemporary Art: Four Contemporary Careers I Thursday, 20.4.2017 from 11:00-12:30, Lecture hall
This lecture would take the careers of four contemporary artists as it's starting point. The aim would be to show how each of these artists has successfully navigated the “ecosystem” of contemporary art that they found themselves in; that balanced relationship between marketplace, public, galleries, critics and curators that shapes and defines discourses of contemporary art. The examples we will focus on are Julita Wojcik (Poland), Hannah Imlach (Scotland), Liina Siib (Estonia), and OPA (Obsessive Possessive Aggression- Macedonia)
Dr. Jonathan Blackwood CV
Education
1991 A-Levels English, History, Economics, Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow
1995 MA (First Class Hons.) History of Art, University of St. Andrews
1996 MA (Distinction) in History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
2000 Ph. D Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. “PrimitivisingEnglish Sculpture c. 1900-32” (supervisor: Professor Chris Green)
Career
1999-2001 Curator of Collections, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge
2001-4 Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd
2004-11 Lecturer, Head of History & Theory of Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Fine Art, University of Dundee
2011-present Research Associate, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Fine Art, University of Dundee
2006- present Visiting Lecturer, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
2014- Lecturer, Critical & Contextual Studies, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
Research Interests
Visual Culture & Political Nationalism in the UK, the Baltic region, and the former Yugoslavia
Art in Scotland, England, Wales & Ireland, c. 1768-the present
Anatomies of Contemporary Art: Strategies and Challenges in a privatised culture
Sound Art, Visualising Sound: The Analogue Past seen from the digital present
Publications
Selected Books & Chapters
Blackwood, J (2017- forthcoming) “Censoring Contemporary Art in Macedonia” in Coulter, R and Kennedy, R (eds.) Censorship in Contemporary Art, London: IB Tauris
Blackwood, J (2016) The Art of Lana Čmajčanin, Radnik Co-Operative, Skopje (e-book)
Blackwood, J (2016- in press), Critical Art in Contemporary Macedonia, Skopje: malagalerija
Blackwood, J (2015) Contemporary Art in Bosnia-Hercegovina, duplex 100m2, Sarajevo
Blackwood, J (2015, March/April) Managing Transitional Culture: Contemporary Art and its Infrastructure in the Balkans, in Bertrand Westphal & Lauren Lydic (eds.), Le silence et la parole. Au lendemain des Guerres Yougoslaves. PULIM, Limoges
Blackwood, J. (2014, November), “Grit in the Mechanism of History: The Paintings of Radenko Milak” in Leon Krempel (ed.) Radenko Milak: 365, Kunsthalle Darmstadt / Walther Koenig, Cologne
Blackwood, J (2014), “On Performativity in the Sarajevo Artworld” in DECODING: Contemporary Art from Bosnia-Herzegovina, National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje
Blackwood,J (2014), Parallel Universe: 5 Contemporary Artists from Macedonia, duplex100m2, Sarajevo (3*- the curation of a major regional international show, introducing the work of 5 emerging Macedonia artists, with accompanying short catalogue)
Blackwood, J (2013), Daniel Premec and Nela Hasanbegović : Culturicide, Institut za Savremene Umjetnost, Zagreb
Blackwood, J (2012), ‘Dispositions of Intimacy’, Intime / Intimacies, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo
Blackwood, J (2012), “Mapping Yugoslav Art from the early sixties” in Jesa Denegri (ed.), Kolekcija Trajkovic: Umjetnosti u Srbiju i Jugoslaviju, Belgrade : Museum of Yugoslav History
Blackwood, J (2011), “Edward Baird’s Scottish Venus” in Emma Dymock & Margery Palmer McCulloch (eds.), Scottish & International Modernisms, Glasgow: Association of Scottish Literary Studies
Blackwood, J (2011) The Sculpture of John Skeaping, London: Lund Humphries (3*- the first coherent monograph on the life and work of an important but often forgotten 20th century sculptor)
Blackwood, J (2010), “Richard Demarco and the Yugoslav Art World in the 1970s”, in McArthur, E & Watson, A (eds.), Ten Dialogues: Richard Demarco and the European Avant-Garde, Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Academy (3*- a defining essay in a major international exhibition catalogue)
Blackwood, J (2007), “Stanley Cursiter’s 1920s Portraits”, in Pam Beasant (ed.), Stanley Cursiter: A Life of the Artist, Orkney Museums and Heritage, Orkney
Blackwood, J (2007) “Mart Laarman and the Eesti Kunstnikkude Ryhm” in Gregory Minissale & Celina Jeffrey, Global and Local Art Histories, Cambridge Scolars’ Press, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Blackwood, J (2004), Portrait of a Young Scotsman: A Life of Edward Baird, Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, London
Blackwood, J (2001), Winifred Nicholson, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge
Exhibitions Curated
November 2017 (forthcoming) Art in Contemporary Macedonia: New Work ((featuring OPA, Igor Toshevski, Vladimir Janchevski, Ephemeriki), Summerhall, Edinburgh
January 2017 (forthcoming) Archipelago: New Work by David Blyth, Alan Grieve and Derek Guild, Summerhall, Edinburgh
November 2016 (forthcoming) Imaginarium: Contemporary Video Art from Macedonia, Gray’s School of Art, RGU, Aberdeen
December 2014 Jusuf Hadzifejzovic: Property of Emptiness, Institute for Contemporary Art, Zagreb.
August 2014, DECODING: Contemporary Art from Bosnia-Herzegovina, National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje.
February 2014, Art in a Parallel Universe: Six Contemporary Artists from Macedonia, duplex 100m2, Sarajevo
September 2013, Daniel Premec & Nela Hasanbegović : Culturicide, Institute of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
November 2012 Tommy Garvie & Pia Peimlich: Transitions (eleven sixty four),Galerija Čarlama, Sarajevo
September 2012 (with Branka Vujanović) Intime / Intimacies Collegium Artisticum , Sarajevo
October 2008 A Moskvitch in Havana, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
April 2004 Portrait of a Young Scotsman : A Life of Edward Baird, Fleming Collection, London
June 2001 Winifred Nicholson, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge
Selected Journal Papers
Blackwood, J (2009), “Humanising Utopia: the Art of Julita Wojcik”, Read More Issue 8, May 2009
Recent Conference Papers & Invited Lectures
“The Two Roberts: Colquhoun and MacBryde in the 1940s”, invited lecture at National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 8 December 2014
“Edward Baird and the Scottish Renaissance in Montrose”, Montrose Museum, 14 November 2014
“JD Fergusson, Sculpture and Contexts”, JD Fergusson conference, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, March 2014
“Contemporary Art in Bosnia & Hercegovina: Infrastructure and Context” invited lecture, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, March 2014
‘Curating Contemporary Art in Bosnia and Hercegovina’ Trieste Contemporanea Forum, 54. Venice Biennale, May 2013
‘Contemporary Art in Sarajevo’, Akademia Likovnih Umjetnosti 40th anniversary conference, October 2012, ALU, Sarajevo
“Contemporary Art in Bosnia-Herzegovina & Macedonia”, Association of Art Historians conference, Milton Keynes, April 2012. I was also co-chair of the conference strand “Imagining the Balkans” at this conference.
Ph.D Students Supervised
2009 Cultural Identity and Nationalism in EstoniaStefanie Reetz (DJCAD, first supervisor)
2010 Drawing and the Abject Cordelia Underhill (DJCAD, first supervisor, practice-based PhD)