Art, Experience, and the Psychology of Perception: Milestones of Curating European Modernism

Summer term
Tuesday 29 April – Tuesday 27 May 2025, 19:00
On campus
OR
Wednesday 7 May – Wednesday 4 June 2025, 20:00 [London time]
Online
£95

Focusing on the display of European modernism in exhibitions dating from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries, this pioneering series of lectures will explore the link between curating and the psychology of perception.  It will investigate how curators constructed narratives and interacted with the viewer by utilising such tools as selection, hang, lay-out, wall-colour, lighting, captions, and extended labels, and increasingly tapping into the insights of the psychology of perception. Our lecturers ask in what ways displays become memorable, and what contribution is made by the viewer’s own sensation and perception, as well as by the more commonly explored curatorial narratives, text panels and extended labels.

In exploring these selected case studies that demonstrate significant developments in curatorship we will learn about milestones in the history of curating as a form of ‘applied art history’.  The series will impart specialist knowledge about major exhibitions taking part in Paris in the second half of the nineteenth century, along with relevant current theories about the impact of collections and exhibitions on the development of European modernism, including topics such as the artist-curator, and the artist-collector dynamic. Looking at key curatorial strategies and developments from the twentieth century, we shall investigate how psychology has been applied to exhibition-making and display as well as the perception and reception of art.  The final lecture will be dedicated to exhibitions of modern European art in the twenty-first century and the latest developments in sensory and immersive exhibitions.

Our lecturers are curator and Courtauld lecturer Dr Natalia Murray and programme director MSc Psychology of the Arts, Neuroaesthetics and Creativity, Goldsmiths, University of London, Dr Rebecca Chamberlain.

Moderator: Dr Anne Puetz (The Courtauld).

Course delivery details

This programme is delivered both on campus and online.

On-campus course delivery: lectures take place at our Vernon Square campus at 19:00, followed by discussion and drinks.  Pre-course and further reading, and handout materials are available on our Virtual Learning Environment.

Online course delivery: this online lecture series consists of pre-recorded lectures, released weekly over 5 weeks, and each lecture viewable for a fortnight; pre-course and further reading, handout materials and a discussion forum are available on our Virtual Learning Environment; live discussions of each lecture take place via Zoom on Wednesdays at 20:00 [London time].