Professor Gavin Parkinson

Professor in European Modernism

Gavin Parkinson was a BA student in Manchester, 聽then completed his MA at The 91制片厂 in 1997, 聽followed by a PhD in 2000. After lecturing at Birkbeck College and the University of Oxford he joined The 91制片厂 teaching staff as a Lecturer in 2008 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2014 then Professor in 2019.

Gavin is a former editor of the Ashgate and Routledge series Studies in Surrealism, current editor of the Bloomsbury series Transnational Surrealism and former Reviews Editor of Art History (2011-16). He lectures and writes on European and US art, culture and criticism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is particularly interested in art and science, art historiography, outlier art, comics, science fiction and animation, with an emphasis on the long history of Surrealism. His books are Robert Rauschenberg and Surrealism: Art History, 鈥楽ensibility鈥 and War (Bloomsbury 2023); Enchanted Ground: Andr茅 Breton, Modernism and the Surrealist Appraisal of Fin-de-Si猫cle Painting (Bloomsbury 2018); Futures of Surrealism: Myth, Science Fiction and Fantastic Art in France 1936-1969 (Yale University Press 2015); Surrealism, Art and Modern Science: Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Epistemology (Yale University Press 2008); and The Duchamp Book (Tate Publishing 2008). He is also the editor of the collection of essays Surrealism, Science Fiction and Comics (Liverpool University Press 2015). He is currently working on a study of Surrealism and Pop art.


PhD Supervision

Current

  • Elina Gudmundsson, 鈥楽urrealism and Fairy Tales.’

Recently completed

  • Grazina Subelyte, 鈥楰urt Seligmann, Surrealism and Occultism’ (2021).
  • Ambra d鈥橝ntoine, 鈥楾ranslating Modernity: Surrealism of the Levant鈥 (CDP with Tate) (2022).
  • Emily Christensen, 鈥極rientalism in the Early Abstract Paintings of Wassily Kandinsky鈥 (2022).
  • Malgorzata Osinka, 鈥楾he Warsaw Group 鈥淩ytm鈥 and the New Classicism鈥 (2017)
  • Kristina Rapacki, 鈥楢sger Jorn鈥檚 Folk: Constructing Peoplehood in Postwar Europe (1941-1965)鈥 (2017)
  • Catherine Howe 鈥楩rancis Bacon鈥檚 French Influence(s): From Surrealism to Post-structuralism鈥 (2018)
  • Rachel Stratton, 鈥楴on-Aristotelian Logic in the Independent Group鈥 (2018)
  • Vanja Malloy, 鈥楻ethinking Alexander Calder: Astronomy, Relativity, Performance and Play鈥 (2014)
  • Sam Ensor Rose, 鈥楩ormalism, Aesthetics, and English Art Writing, 1918-39鈥 (2014).
  • James Day 鈥楽tudies in Art History Writing and the Revision of Whistler鈥檚 Art History (2014)
  • Jim Threapleton 鈥楾he Corroded Surface: Portrait of the Sublime鈥 (2015 (co-supervision, Camberwell))
  • Tim Satterthwaite 鈥楾he Visual Language of European Photo-Illustrated Magazines, 1920-34鈥 (2016)
  • William Atkin 鈥楾he Surrealist Object as the Vessel of Alchemy, Sorcery, and 鈥淢agic鈥: Occult Practices in French Surrealism, c.1930-1970鈥 (2017)

Research interests

  • European Modernism,聽1848-1960
  • Dada and Surrealist Art, Writing and Theory
  • Art and Science
  • Art and the Novel
  • Theory, Methodology, Philosophy and History of Art and Visual Culture
  • Science Fiction and Comics
  • Magic, the Occult and Alchemy

Recent publications

Authored Books

  • Robert Rauschenberg and Surrealism: Art History, 鈥楽ensibility鈥 and War, New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2023
  • Enchanted Ground: Andr茅 Breton, Modernism and the Surrealist Appraisal of Fin-de-Si猫cle Painting, New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2018 (shortlisted for the 2018 R. Gapper Book Prize awarded by the Society for French Studies; pub. in paperback 2021)
  • Futures of Surrealism: Myth, Science Fiction and Fantastic Art in France 1936-69, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015
  • Surrealism, Art and Modern Science: Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Epistemology, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008 (shortlisted for the 2009 Gapper Book Prize awarded by the Society for French Studies)
  • The Duchamp Book, London: Tate Publishing, 2008

 

Edited Books

  • Surrealism, Science Fiction and Comics (ed.), Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015

 

Co-edited Issue of Journal

  • Art History (co-edited with Genevieve Warwick), vol. 40, no. 4 (鈥Art History 40: Image and Memory鈥), September 2017

 

Articles, Essays and Chapters in Press and Forthcoming

  • 鈥樷榃oe to the Sperm Whale That Fought Against a Louse!鈥 On the Surrealist Reception of Tex Avery in the 1950s,鈥 Abigail Susik (ed.), Beyond Still Life, forthcoming 2024.
  • 鈥楻别肠辞苍迟别虫迟耻补濒颈蝉颈苍驳 L鈥橝rt magique: Surrealism, Modernism and the History of Art,鈥 Alessandra Buccheri and Giulia Ingarao (eds.), Surrealist Trajectories in Art, Mimesis International, forthcoming 2023.
  • 鈥楾wentieth Century Revolutions in Art and Science,鈥 James Fox and Vid Simoniti (eds.), Art and Knowledge After 1900: Interactions Between Modern Art and Thought, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023, 46-68.

 

Recent Articles, Essays and Chapters

  • 鈥樷淭he Constantin Guys of the Atomic Era鈥: On the Poetic Reception of Robert Rauschenberg by Alain Jouffroy and Surrealism,鈥 Word & Image, vol. 39, no. 2, 2023, 176-91.
  • 鈥楽urrealism and the Science Fiction Novel,鈥 Anna Watz (ed.), A History of the Surrealist Novel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023, 205-25.
  • Monogram in Front unique: Robert Rauschenberg and Jean-Jacques Lebel at the Limits of Surrealism,鈥 Dada/Surrealism, no. 24, no. 1 (鈥楶rismatic Fringes: Periodicals and the Borders of Surrealism鈥), 2023, 1-27.
  • 鈥楯asper Johns/Robert Rauschenberg,鈥 Amiti茅s: Cr茅ativit茅 collective, Marseille: Mucem and Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2023, 140-47 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥楥onvulsive Beauty and Mad Love,鈥 Kirsten Strom (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Surrealism, New York and London: Routledge, 2022, 37-45.
  • 鈥楾辞飞补谤诲蝉 L鈥橝rt magique: Surrealism and Magic in the 1950s,鈥 Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, Potsdam: Museum Barberini and Venice: Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 2022, 83-97 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥樷淭o Be a Painter Means to Oppose鈥: Exhibiting and Politicizing Robert Rauschenberg, 1959-65,鈥 Elliott H. King and Abigail Susik (eds.), Radical Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance, University Park PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022, 92-113.
  • 鈥楢 Surrealist Manifesto of Symbolism: Andr茅 Breton, Charles Filiger and Dessins symbolistes,鈥 The Savage Eye: Symbolism and Surrealism, Oslo: Munchmuseet, 2022, 258-69 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥楳odern Science,鈥 Natalya Lusty (ed.), Surrealism: Cambridge Critical Concepts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, 78-93.
  • 鈥榁iolence and Revolution,鈥 Surrealism Beyond Borders, New York and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tate Modern, 2021, 292-5 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥楩谤辞尘 Paris n鈥檈xiste pas to Berkeley Square: Surrealism, Time Travel and 鈥淪econd Sight,鈥濃 Kristoffer Noheden and Abigail Susik (eds.), Surrealism and Film After 1945: Absolutely Modern Mysteries, Manchester: Manchester聽University Press, 2021, 128-46.
  • 鈥極n 鈥淪ensibility鈥: Art, Art Criticism and Surrealism in New York in the 1960s,鈥 Journal of Art Historiography, no. 23, 1 December 2020, n. p.
  • 鈥楤lind Summit/Models of Subjectivity: Surrealism, Physics and Psychoanalysis,鈥 Ed Juler and Alistair Robinson (eds.), Post-Specimen Encounters Between Art, Science and Curating: Rethinking Art Practice and Objecthood Through Scientific Collections, Bristol and Chicago: Intellect, 2020, 119-39.
  • 鈥楪eorges Seurat in the Twentieth Century: From Classicism to Surrealism,鈥 Grace Brockington and C. F. B. Miller (eds.), Of Modernism: Essays in Honour of Christopher Green, London: Paul Holberton, 2020, 105-27.
  • 鈥楤etween the Viaducts of Your Dream,鈥 Dominic Shepherd: Downstream, London: Charlie Smith London, 2019, 10-27 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥楿nraveling Surrealism鈥檚 Entanglement with Physics,鈥 Entangled: Physics and the Artistic Imagination, Ume氓: Bildmuseet, 2019, 41-9 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥楨veryday Magic: Surrealism and Parapsychology,鈥 Jake Poller (ed.), Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century, London: Routledge, 2019, 78-96.
  • 鈥楢ntonin Artaud,鈥 Michael Richardson (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, vol. 2, New York: Bloomsbury, 2019, 29-37.
  • 鈥榊ves Ell茅ou毛t,鈥 Michael Richardson (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, vol. 2, New York: Bloomsbury, 2019, 273-5.
  • 鈥榃e Are Property: The 鈥淕reat Invisibles鈥 Considered Alongside 鈥淲eird鈥 and Science Fiction in America, 1919-43,鈥 The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945, vol. 14 (鈥楧ada and Surrealism: Transatlantic Aliens on American Shores, 1914-1945鈥), autumn 2018, n. p.
  • 鈥楻evolutions in Art and Science: Cubism, Quantum Mechanics, and Art History,鈥 Vanja Malloy (ed.), Dimensionism: Modern Art in the Age of Einstein, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2018, 99-113 (exhibition catalogue).
  • 鈥楬enry Darger, Comics, and the Graphic Novel: Contexts and Appropriations,鈥 Jan Baetens, Hugo Frey and Stephen E. Tabachnick (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, 139-54.
  • 鈥楶ainting as Propaganda and Prophecy: Andr茅 Breton and Ren茅 Magritte in the Shadow of Socialist Realism,鈥 The Oxford Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, August 2018, 249-69.
  • 鈥楳agic, Folklore, and Rural Tales in Le Pouldu: Andr茅 Breton, Paul Gauguin, and Charles Filiger,聽Word & Image, vol. 34, no. 2, 2018, 75-87.

Citations