History of Art

The History of Art PhD programme from University of Bristol is a thriving and collegial centre for the study of art, visual culture and theory.

The History of Art History of Art PhD programme from University of Bristol University of Bristol staff specialisms range from medieval altarpieces to Soviet public monuments, from pre-Renaissance sculpture to contemporary art of the diaspora. We are interested in thinking across historical periods and through a variety of critical approaches.

We encourage you to participate in the stimulating intellectual and social life of the department, with regular research seminars and guest lectures, not to mention our thriving Art History in the Pub series of talks and discussions. We support interdisciplinary approaches and have expertise in topics such as interrelationships in art and music in both the medieval and modern periods; art and writing; and issues of art and race.

We also have close links with many other departments in the school and faculty, as well as with national and local galleries and museums.

Career opportunities:

A large number of graduates from the History of Art programme offered at University of Bristol develop careers in higher education or work on high-level research projects in the fields of history of art and visual culture; some graduates take up careers in gallery and museum management and curation, art consultancy, publishing or in the commercial fine art market.

Courses include:

• British art and art criticism

• Theories of modernism

• Abstraction

• 20th-century German art

• 20th-century Russian and Soviet art

• Representations of sport and the body

• Medieval art, visual and material culture

• Late medieval and Renaissance sculpture

• 17th-century Italian art

• Art and visual culture of the Black Atlantic

• Medieval and modern art and music interrelationships (including sound and audio art, visual music, iconography and synaesthesia)