Dr Grace Brockington

Contact details

Room 1.29, 9 Woodland Road, +44 (0)117 331 1221, [email protected]

Research interests

I am a specialist in modern British art, with particular interests in the connections between art and theatre, internationalism, and literature. My work has been supported by a Philip Leverhulme Prize, an AHRC Early Career Fellowship, and a Visiting Scholarship at the Yale Center for British Art.

My research career began with an investigation into the peace movement in the early twentieth century, which I published as Above the Battlefield: Modernism and the Peace Movement in Britain, 1900-1918 (Yale University Press, 2010). This has led to projects about war and puppetry, Vanessa Bell’s experimental work, book illustration, and universal visual language. Larger, collaborative studies have developed through my research into art and internationalism. Together with Sarah Victoria Turner, I convened the AHRC-funded research network ICE (https://iceresearchnetwork.wordpress.com). Recently, I have worked with Impermanence Dance Theatre and the Paul Mellon Centre to create a film and exhibition centred on experimental theatre in London in the First World War (https://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-11). I was guest curator for the exhibition Gaudier-Brzeska: Disputing the Earth (RWA, Bristol, 2019).

Research supervision

I welcome proposals from students working on modern British art (from the C19th to the present), and art in relation to theatre, literature, conflict, and internationalism. Theses which I have supervised include the still-life in modern poetry, Edwardian art writing, Art History and subjectivity, the history of display at the Imperial War Museum, and theatricality in the art of William Nicholson. Several of these projects were interdisciplinary in their approach, and I am open to suggestions for interdisciplinary supervision. Please do not hesitate to get in touch me with if you have an idea for a project which you would like to discuss further.

Teaching

I teach on the modern survey course for undergraduates and contribute to teaching on curation, Bristol landmarks, and the histories and theories of art. I offer options on art and war, art in Britain, and art and internationalism. At MA level, I teach a unit on text and image.