Anne was awarded her PhD in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh in 2024. Her thesis, ‘The Harmonised Whole: Wassily Kandinsky and Principles in Visual Perception from Jugendstil through Der Blaue Reiter, 1896-1914′ examines intersections between Kandinsky’s early work and studies in optics and spatial theory that were espoused by such experimental psychologists as Hermann von Helmholtz, Wilhelm Wundt and Theodor Lipps. Research for her thesis was supported by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Leverhulme Trust fellowships, as well as Association for Art History and Edinburgh College of Art research grants.
Anne has most recently published her research in the Tate Modern exhibition catalogue for Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider (2024) and a chapter on ‘Abstracting Empathy: Wassily Kandinsky and His Artistic Interpretations of Visual Perception’ in the forthcoming edited volume Empathic Engagements (London: Palgrave, 2024). She has also published in The Modernist Review and Burlington Magazine.
Anne is co-convener for the Research Forum for German Visual Culture, and she has previously worked as a curatorial research assistant for such institutions as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Teaching
The Courtauld:
BA2/3: Learning from Paris: War, Internationalism, Postmodernism
Edinburgh College of Art:
BA2: Reason, Romance, Revolution: Art from 1700 to 1900
Guest Lectures:
Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, University of Birmingham at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts: ‘The Harmonised Whole: Wassily Kandinsky and Principles in Visual Perception’ (March 2024)
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte München: ‘The Harmonised Whole: Wassily Kandinsky and Principles in Visual Perception from Jugendstil through Der Blaue Reiter‘ (June 2023)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Statewide Program Series, specialising in 19th– and 20th-Century Modernism (2018)
Department of Art & Art History, College of William & Mary, specialising in Modernism, the Bauhaus, and Visual Perception (2017)
Education
2024: PhD History of Art, University of Edinburgh (‘The Harmonised Whole: Wassily Kandinsky and Principles in Visual Perception from Jugendstil through Der Blaue Reiter, 1896–1914’)
2015: MA History of Art, awarded with Distinction, The Courtauld Institute of Art (‘Wassily Kandinsky and Gestalt Laws of Visual Perception: The Science of Art versus the Art of Science’)
2013: BA, summa cum laude with Honors in Art History, University of Mary Washington (Honors thesis: ‘Looking Out, Looking In: Windows and the Impressionists’)
Publications
‘Abstracting Empathy: Wassily Kandinsky and His Artistic Interpretations of Visual Perception,’ in Empathic Engagements, eds., Susan Barahal and Elizabeth Pugliano (London: Palgrave, 2024).
In-focus texts on ‘Destination: Schwabing, Munich’; ‘Paris, The Splendours and Miseries’; ‘Murnau: Places of Encounter and Discussions’ in the exhibition catalogue Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider (London: Tate Modern, 2024).
‘Kandinsky in Munich,’ MunichArtToGo, last modified 25 January 2024, https://municharttogo.zikg.eu/items/show/141.
‘Wassily Kandinsky’s Woodcuts: Early Experimentations with Non-Objective Imagery,’ The Modernist Review, no. 38 (February 2022). https://modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2022/03/03.
‘Wassily Kandinsky and His Engagement with Experimental Psychology,’ The Modernist Review, no. 34 (October 2021), special issue on Modernism and Science. https://modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2021/09/30.
Review of ‘German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter and its Legacies, Edited by Dorothy Price,’ Burlington Magazine, vol. 163, no. 1416 (March 2021), pp. 300–301.
‘Bibliography of Recent Literature on Drawings,’ Master Drawings, vol. 57, no. 2 (Summer 2019), pp. 253–264.
Conferences
‘Uses of Modernism’ Conference, Ghent University, September 2023: ‘Kandinsky’s Early Notebooks on Optics and their Relationship to Abstraction’
European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernist Studies Conference, Lisbon, September 2022: ‘Across Russian and German Borders: Wassily Kandinsky and His Engagement with Experimental Psychology from 1896 until 1914’
‘Revisiting the Avant-Garde Total Work of Art’ Conference, University of Leuven, May 2022: ‘Kandinsky’s Gesamtkunstwerk: Visual Perception in his Development toward Abstraction’
Annual Postgraduate Conference, German Historical Institute London, January 2022: ‘The Harmonised Whole: Wassily Kandinsky and Principles in Visual Perception from Jugendstil through der Blaue Reiter’
‘New Work in Modernist Studies’ Conference, British Association for Modernist Studies, December 2021: ‘Wassily Kandinsky in Munich: His Early Engagement with Experimental Psychology’
Annual Postgraduate Symposium, Edinburgh College of Art, June 2021: ‘Visual Perception/Deception in the Abstract Works of Wassily Kandinsky’
Association for Art History 47th Annual Conference, April 2021: ‘Wassily Kandinsky and the Gestalt Laws of Visual Perception’
Academic Awards and Fellowships
Leverhulme Study Abroad Studentship, Munich (Research period: October 2022 – October 2023)
DAAD Fellowship, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich (Research period: October 2021)
Association for Art History research grant, Munich (Research period: November 2021)
College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Recognition Award Nominee for ‘Outstanding Team Award’, Edinburgh College of Art (March 2021)
Edinburgh University Students’ Association Student-led Teaching Award nominee for ‘Student Tutor of the Year’, Edinburgh College of Art (February 2021)
Finalist for ‘Outstanding Leadership Award’, University of Mary Washington (May 2013)
Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society (April 2012)