Prof Natalie Adamson

Prof Natalie Adamson

Deputy Head of School

Professor

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 2412
Email
na14@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

My research and teaching concerns twentieth-century modern visual culture, particularly with regard to the art and politics of France after 1940 and its international and transnational relations around the world; abstract art; surrealism; art criticism and its reception; the practice of painting;  and the history and theory of photography, especially related to  modernism, colour and the photobook. My specialism in post-war French art informed my books Painting, Politics and the Struggle for the École de Paris, 1944-1964 (Ashgate 2009/Routledge 2016) and In Focus: Around the Blues 1957, 1962-3, by Sam Francis (Tate Research Publications, 2019), as well as the co-edited publications Academics, Pompiers, Official Artists and the Arrière-Garde: Defining Modern and Traditional in France, 1900-1960 (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009) and Material Imagination: Postwar European Art, 1946-1971 (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017). Major grants from the Leverhulme Trust, the Getty Research Institute, the AHRC and the Carnegie Trust have supported my research. I served as Deputy Editor of the International, UK-based journal of record for the discipline, Art History, from 2012 to 2017.

I am currently completing two major research projects. The first is a monograph that examines the abstract painting practice of French artist Pierre Soulages (b.1919) in relation to philosophies of temporality, existentialism and phenomenology, poetic theory, and the cultural politics of the post-45 decades (forthcoming with Yale University Press). The second is the Companion to French Art, 1782 the Present, co-edited with Richard Taws (UCL) for Wiley Blackwell. Other research that is ongoing concerns women artists and abstraction, photography during the 1950s, the representation of ideas of Europe, and transnational networks and artistic relationships between Paris/France and elsewhere.

I have guided seven PhDs to completion and currently supervise or co-supervise seven others on research topics in both art history and history of photography. I invite enquiries from potential students who wish to  pursue research topics related to my interests, however, the earliest I can consider PhD candidates is 2025.

PhD supervision

  • Mi Zhou
  • Esther Laforge
  • Bridget Hardiman
  • Brittany Jones
  • Weerada Muangsook
  • Jacqueline Donnelly Russell

Selected publications

  • New realities in Paris: abstract art and internationalism, 1946-1950

     Adamson, N., 31 Oct 2024, Between point zero and the Iron Curtain: international cooperation in art at the postwar moment, 1945-1948. Forgács, É. (ed.). Leiden: Brill, p. 205-245 41 p. (Avant garde critical studies; vol. 45).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

  • La Peinture au présent

     Adamson, N., 6 Jul 2023, Les derniers Soulages 2010-2022. Soulages, M. (ed.). Paris: Gallimard, p. 25-31 7 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Bouquet for Vincent

     Adamson, N., 3 Jul 2021, John Hoyland : the last paintings. Cornish, S., Kullmann, S. & Kelly, W. P. (eds.). London: Ridinghouse, p. 40-52 13 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • “Le voisinage le plus difficile à supporter”: Soulages et Hartung

     Adamson, N. A., 2020, Hans Hartung et l’abstraction « Réalité autre, mais réalité quand même ».. Kirchner, T., Schieder, M. & Kramer-Mallordy, A. (eds.). Paris: Les presses du réel

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

  • Open access

    In Focus: Around the Blues 1957, 1962-3 by Sam Francis

     Adamson, N. A., Adamson, N. A. (Editor), Buhe, E. & Winther-Tamaki, B., 15 Jul 2019, Tate Gallery On-Line Research Publications : Tate Publishing. (Tate In Focus Research Publications)

    Research output: Book/Report › Book

  • Open access

    Sam Francis and Painting in Paris

     Adamson, N. A., 15 Jul 2019, In Focus: Around the Blues 1957, 1962-3 by Sam Francis. Adamson, N. (ed.). Tate Gallery On-Line Research Publications : Tate Publishing, Chapter 2. (Tate In Focus Research Publications).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Open access

    The Painting - An International Itinerary

     Adamson, N. A., 15 Jul 2019, In Focus: Around the Blues 1957, 1962-3 by Sam Francis. Adamson, N. (ed.). Tate Gallery On-Line Research Publications : Tate Publishing, Chapter 1. (Tate In Focus Research Publications).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • The Nouvelle École de Paris

     Adamson, N. A. & Cornu, J.-F. (Translator), 8 Nov 2018, Traverser la lumière: Bazaine, Bissière, Elvire Jan, Le Moal, Manessier, Singier. Rodari, F. (ed.). Milan: 5 Continents Editions, p. 27-37

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Une éclosion de fleurs noires : Bachelard, Soulages et l’imagination matérielle de la peinture abstraite

     Adamson, N. A. & Cornu, J.-F. (Translator), 20 Feb 2018, Les Arts à Paris après la Libération. Temps et Temporalités. Kirchner, T., Bertrand Dorléac, L., Laks, D. & Putz, N. (eds.). Universitäts-Bibliothek Heidelberg, p. 148-172 (Passages; no. 2).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

  • Vestiges du futur: La temporalité dans l’œuvre de Pierre Soulages

     Adamson, N. A. & Cornu, J.-F. (Translator), 15 Jun 2018, Pierre Soulages. Morando, C. (ed.). Paris: Editions Centre Georges Pompidou

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

 

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