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James Joseph Tissot, Ramsgate (1876), courtesy British Museum.

There has been two decades of vigorous interest in British art history, but up to now this has tended to assume a more or less unproblematic category of national identity and has not enquired closely into the elusive idea of ‘Britishness’. More recently, the concept of the transnational has proved to be a productive way for art historians in the 21st century to reflect not only on contemporary art, but also that of previous centuries. This graduate conference will address the extent to which these two approaches overlap in British art between 1851 and 1960, not only in terms of British artists working abroad and non-British artists adopting Britain as a base, but also in less tangible or previously unconsidered ways.

  

Between 1851 and 1960, Britain’s global position altered radically – from the early consolidation of British imperial power in the mid-nineteenth century, through two world wars, the rise of the US to the reassessment of Britain’s political and cultural position in the post-war world, against a background of increasingly porous national and cultural boundaries. In this context, British art’s relationship with ‘the international’ seems a pertinent topic to consider, particularly from our own, increasingly ‘transnational’ perspective. ‘Transnational’ and ‘international’ are problematic terms here – the former reflects our own, more fluid concept of nationhood in the 21st century, while the latter offers a clearer definition of how nations were considered between 1851 and 1960. But is it possible to study British art of this period from our ‘transnational’ viewpoint? Can we talk of British art as separate from Britain as a nation or nationality? If British art between 1851 and 1960 cannot be considered ‘transnational’ in our terms, nor wholly ‘British’, how can it be considered in ‘international terms’?

For further information please contact britartinternational@gmail.com

Organised by Kate Aspinall, Rosanna Eckersley, Kitty Hudson and Greg Salter.

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