VISUAL CULTURE
Paul Overy: CV
Reader in History & Theory of Modernism, Middlesex University
EDUCATION
1966 – Kings College, Cambridge: MA
1962 – Kings College, Cambridge: BA
1947-1958 – University College School, London
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
1984-1985 – Leverhulme Research Fellowship
1983/1992 – Elephant Trust Research Grants
1983/1984 – Northern Arts Critic-in-Residence, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1970 – Italian Government Scholarship
ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
1997- – 0.5 Reader in the History & Theory of Modernism, Middlesex University
1994-1997 – 0.5/0.4 Associate Lecturer, Middlesex University
1992-1993 – Acting co-ordinator MA & PG Diploma, History of Art Programme (temporary full-time post), Goldsmiths College, University of London
1988-1995 – Part-time lecturer, Goldsmiths College, University of London
1991-1992 – Part-time lecturer, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (teaching undergraduate & postgraduate courses)
1989-1992 – Part-time lecturer, Department of History of Art, University College London
1981-1995 – Part-time lecturer, Department of Cultural Studies, Central St Martins College of Art & Design
1975-1987 – Associate (0,25) Tutor, Department of Cultural History, Faculty of Humanities, Royal College of Art
1982 – Guest lecturer (series of five lectures), Department of Art History, Cambridge University
1972-1982 – Part-time Tutor, Department of Art History, Faculty of Humanities, Open University
1966-1972 – Visiting lecturer in history of art and design: Camberwell School of Art, Goldsmiths College, Harrow School of Art, Portsmouth School of Art, Hornsey College of Art, St Martins School of Art, Maidstone School of Art
1964-1965 – Assistant Lecturer in General Studies, Brixton College
NON-ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT (Editorial and Critical Posts)
Since 1982 – freelance art critic & reviewer: Studio International, Art Monthly, Art and Artists, Art in America, Journal of Art, Art Review, Tate, etc.
1979-1981 – Art Critic, International Herald Tribune
1973-1978 – Chief Art Critic, The Times
1970-1971 – Book Reviews Editor, New Society
1968-1971 – Art Critic, Financial Times
1978-1982 – Art Critic, The Listener
1966-1968 – Art Critic, The Listener
COMMITTEES & CONSULTANCIES
1987-1991 – Member of International Advisory Council of the Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York.
1983-1986 – History of Art & Design Board, Council for National Academic Awards.
1981-1986 – Art Collection Advisor, Leicestershire Education Authority.
1978-1981 – Advisory Committee, Gulbenkian Foundation Enquiry into the Economic Position of the Artist.
1977-1979 – Art Committee, Scottish Arts Council.
CURRENT TEACHING & SUPERVISION
Middlesex University: Teaching on 1st, 2nd and 3rd year BA Art & Design History modules, ‘Institutions of Culture’, ‘The Avant Garde’, ‘Visual Culture and Imperialism’, and specialist lecture blocks on MA Visual Culture and MA Design History
Recent Special Lectures outside Middlesex University: 2002 – ‘The Artist’s Studio: Mondrian and Brancusi’, lecture in series to accompany exhibition Paris: Capital of the Arts 1900-1968.
1999, 1998, 1997, 1996 – ‘Mondrian and De Stijl’, for Modern Art: The Visual Arts of the 19th and 20th Centuries course, Victoria and Albert Museum Education Department
1995 – ‘Rietveld Furniture’ lecture delivered at School of Design, Cardiff Institute of Higher Education
1995 – ‘The Chair and the Flesh’, lecture delivered in conjunction with the showing of Crafts Council exhibition Furniture Today—Its Design and Craft at Oriel, Cardiff
1995 – ‘Rietveld’s Schröder House’, lecture in series Twentieth Century Houses, for the Twentieth Century Society.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE & LECTURE TOURS (BRITISH COUNCIL)
1987 – Czechoslovakia
1984-1985 – Hungary
1980 – Finland
1978 – Poland
1974/1976 – Romania
MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES & ORGANISATIONS
Member, DOCOMOMO UK (UK national group of the International Working Party for the Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement); Society of Authors; National Union of Journalists; Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art; Royal Institute of British Architects (Subscriber Member); Association of Art Historians; Twentieth Century Society.
PUBLICATIONS & PUBLIC OUTCOMES
Authored (and co-authored) books (since 1990):
1) 1998 (with Norman Foster), Norman Foster: 30 Colours, V & K Publishers, Blaricum (Netherlands)
2) 1993 (with Peter Vöge), The Complete Rietveld Furniture, 010 Uitgeverij, Rotterdam
3) 1992, (with Lenneke Büller, Frank den Oudsten & Bertus Mulder), The Rietveld-Schroder House, Second Edition, Thoth, Amsterdam
4) 1991, De Stijl, Thames and Hudson, London.
Articles and chapters in edited book and exhibition catalogues (since 1990):
I) Articles and chapters in books
1) 2003: ‘Kandinsky: Die Sprache die Auge’ in Ingo Rentschler, Eva Madelung and Peter Fauser (eds), Bilder Im Kopf: Texte zum Imaginativen Lernen, Kallmeyer, Seelze-Velber (reprint), pp.175-186
2) 1999: ‘Roberto Matta’, Dictionary of Latin American and Caribbean Art, Macmillan, London, 1999, pp.-
3) 1997: ‘Translation et Traduction’, in Françoise Lioure (ed.), De La Traduction sun Les Chemins de Saint Jérôme, Université Blaise Pascal de Clermond-Ferrand II, Centre de Récherches sur les Littératures Modernes et Contemporaines, pp.69-76
4) 1997, ‘The Cell in the City’, in Architecture and Cubism, edited by Eve Blau and Nancy J. Troy, The MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. & London, pp.117-140
5) 1996, ‘Designing for the Modern World: De Stijl’, Investigating Modern Art, edited by Liz Dawtrey et al., Yale University Press, New Haven and London, in association with the Open University, pp.71-85
6) 1996, ‘Roberto Matta’, Dictionary of Art, Macmillan, London, Vol.20, pp.837-839
7) 1995, ‘Vorticism’, Concepts of 20th Century Art, Third Edition, expanded and updated, edited by Nikos Stangos, Thames and Hudson, London, pp.106-109
8) 1992, ‘Gerrit Rietveld’, International Dictionary of Architecture and Architects, St James Press, Chicago, pp.732-734
9) 1992, ‘The Rietveld Schröder House’, International Dictionary of Architecture and Architects, St James Press, Chicago, pp.729-730
II Essays in exhibition catalogues
1) 2001, ‘El Lissitzky and the West: Internationalism and Proun’, in Lutz Becker (ed.), Construction: Tatlin and After, Exhibition Catalogue, State Museum of Contemporary Art: Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki, pp.276-295
2) 1994, ‘The New Works of Rasheed Araeen’, Rasheed Araeen, Exhibition Catalogue, South London Art Gallery, London, pp.5-20
3) 1994, ‘Josef Albers: A Recognition of Restrictions’, Josef Albers, Exhibition Catalogue, National Touring Exhibitions, South Bank Centre, London, pp.13-37
4) 1992, ‘Introduction’, Jack Smith, Exhibition Catalogue, Flowers East, London, pp.2-5
5) 1990, ‘Rietveld Furniture and the Schröder House’, Rietveld Furniture and the Schröder House, Exhibition Catalogue, South Bank Centre, London: Touring Exhibition, pp.9-23
Published conference proceedings (since 1990):
1) ‘Re-inventing the Wheel – Speed in Slow Motion: The London Eye (Millennium Wheel)’, Visual Culture in Britain, Vol.4, No.2, 2003 2) 1997, ‘The Cell in the City’, in Architecture and Cubism, pp.117-140, edited by Eve Blau and Nancy J. Troy, The MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. and London, proceedings of Architecture & Cubism, (Closed Colloquium), Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montreal, 1993 3) 1990, ‘Van Doesburg et Futurisme’, in Theo van Doesburg, pp.88-93, edited by Serge Lemoine, Philippe Sers, Paris, proceedings of Colloque International Theo van Doesburg, University of Dijon, 1982
Articles in journals and magazines (selected, since 1990): 1) ‘Visions of the Future and the Immediate Past: The Werkbund Exhibition, Paris 1930’, Journal of Design History, Vol.17, No.4, 2004, pp.337-357 2) ‘Re-inventing the Wheel – Speed in Slow Motion: The London Eye (Millennium Wheel)’, Visual Culture in Britain, Vol.4, No.2, 2003, pp.21-40 3) 2002, ‘Centuring the City’, Visual Communication, Vol.1, No.1, February, pp.59-64 4) 2000, ‘Building Sight: House, London NW3 by Brian Housden’ in Post-War Houses special issue of Twentieth Century Architecture, No.4, pp.7-18 5) 1995, ‘Steppes to Abstraction’, (Kandinsky Centenary), Art Review, March, pp.24-27 6) 1995, ‘Framed: Piet Mondrian—The Artist’s Studio, 26 Rue du Départ, Paris, 1921-1926’, Tate, Issue 5, Spring, pp.20-22 7) 1994, ‘The Rietveld Chair: Belief and the Body’, Art in America, Vol.82, No.1, January, pp.34-42 8) 1992, ‘New Grid on the Block’, The Sunday Times Magazine, 14 October 1990, pp.92-94 9) 1992, Translations of seven poems by Valery Larbaud, Modern Poetry in Translation, New Series, No.1, Summer, pp.99-105 10) 1991, ‘Carpentering the Classic: The Furniture of Gerrit Rietveld’, Journal of Design History, Vol.4, No.3, pp.135-166 11) 1991, ‘Lions and Unicorns: The Britishness of Postwar British Sculpture’, Art in America, Vol.79, September, pp.105-110, pp.153-155
Book Reviews (Selected, since 1990): 1) 1998, Josef Frank, Architect and Designer: An Alternative Vision of the Modern Home, Nina Stritzler-Levine (ed.), in Journal of Design History, Vol.11, No.3 2) 1997, Signals, August 1964-March 1966, (facsimile reprint), Exploding Galaxies: The Art of David Medalla by Guy Brett, Chila Kumari Burman: Beyond Two Cultures, by Lynda Nead, in Art History, Vol.20, No.3, September 3) 1995, Piet Mondrian 1872-1944, exhibition catalogue by Yve-Alain Bois, Joop Joosten, Angelica Zander Rudenstine, Hans Janssen, Mondrian: The Art of Destruction, by Carel Blotkamp, in Art History, Vol.18, No.4, December, pp.584-595 4) 1993, The Rhetoric of Purity: Essentialist Theory and the Advent of Abstract Painting by Mark A.Cheetham, in Art History, Vol.16, No.1, March, pp.190-195
Conference papers and other contributions (since 1990):
1) 2003 – ‘Modernist Architecture, Colonialism, Orientalism & the White Wall’, Closed Symposium ‘Cosmopolitan Modernisms’, Institute for International Visual Arts (iniVA) London
2) 2003 – ‘The Restoration of Modern Life: Interwar houses on show in the Netherlands’, The Dorich House Annual Conference, Kingston University, The Modern Period-Room: The Construction of the Exhibited Interior 1870-1950
3) 2000 – ‘Re-Inventing the Wheel. Speed in Slow Motion: The London Eye (Millennium Wheel)’, Time, CIHA 2000 Conference, London
4) 1998 – ‘Modernism and the Martello Tower: Michael Scott and the Production of an Irish Modernist Architecture, 1937-1939’, Identities, Annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians, Exeter
5) 1997 – ‘Translation et Traduction’, Colloque sur Traduction (Conference on Translation), Vichy, France (paper to be published by the Centre de Récherches sur les Littératures Modernes et Contemporaines de l’Université Blaise Pascal de Clermond-Ferrand in 1998)
6) 1996 – ‘Envisaging the Future, Recuperating the Past: The Werkbund Exhibition, Paris 1930’, Futures, Annual Conference of the Design History Society, Middlesex University, London
7) 1994 – ‘Through a Glass Opaquely: Josef Albers’s Abstract Work’, Josef Albers Symposium, Norwich Gallery, Norfolk Institute of Art & Design
8) 1993 – ‘The Cell in the City’, Architecture & Cubism (Closed Colloquium), Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montreal (published in Architecture and Cubism, edited by E. Blau and N. Troy, Cambridge Mass. & London, 1997)
9) 1993 – ‘Taking the Tube—Tubular Steel Furniture: Mobility, Speed, Symbolic Form’, Moving Through Design: The Culture Of Transport & Travel, Annual Conference of the Design History Society, Southampton Institute of Higher Education, Southampton
10) 1991 – ‘The Furniture of Gerrit Rietveld’, Rietveld Symposium, South Bank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, London
EXHIBITIONS CURATED, ORGANISED OR SELECTED (since 1990):
1) 1997 – Curator for Great Britain, 13th Biennial for Small Sculpture, Murska Sobota, Slovenia/Museum of Concrete Art, Ingelostadt, Germany
2) 1994 – Josef Albers, South Bank Centre Touring Exhibition (in association with the Josef Albers Foundation, Orange, Connecticut, USA): Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Mead Gallery, Warwick University Arts Centre, Coventry; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Norwich Gallery, Norwich
3) 1990-1991 – Rietveld Furniture and the Schröder House, organized by South Bank Centre Touring Exhibition, London (in association with the Centraal Museum, Utrecht and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands): Mead Gallery, Warwick University Arts Centre, Coventry; Whitworth Gallery, Manchester; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Southampton Art Gallery, Southampton; Collins Gallery, Glasgow; Royal Festival Hall, London
FILMS & TV
1) 2003 – Interviewed for Romanian film about the work of the Romanian artist Paul Neagu
2) 2001 – Interviewed for Romanian TV film about the life and work of the Romanian artist Horia Bernea
3) 1995 – Interviewed in Mondrian, for Without Walls, Channel 4 TV
4) 1995: Interviewed in Mondrian: The Boogie Woogie Man, BBC2 TV
5) 1989: Advisor for/interviewed in The Eiffel Tower, produced by Nick Rossiter, BBC2
6) 1986: Art historical advisor for Vita Futurista, directed by Lutz Becker, for Channel 4 TV and Arts Council of Great Britain
7) 1975-1976: Scripted, compiled and narrated two programmes for BBC/Open University Course A315 Modern Art from 1848 to the Present
8) 1969-70: Compiled and directed 16mm colour documentary film, Artist in the Works for the Artist Placement Group (APG)
9) 1968: Scripted, compiled and narrated five programmes in BBC2 Further Education series The Visual Scene Since 1945