Ben Pollitt specialises in art and the former British empire. He received an MA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh, an MA (Distinction) in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London, and a PhD from UCL (2020), where he also worked as a Teaching Fellow. Prior to entering academia, Ben worked for many years as a teacher and examiner of A-Level History of Art. His research has been published in leading academic journals, including The Art Bulletin and Third Text for which he also serves as a co-editor of the ‘Decolonial Imaginaire’ forum.
Ben has received a Paul Mellon Centre Postdoctoral Fellowship for his book project, ‘The Atlas Unbound, John Webber, James Cook, and the End of Sympathy.’ He has also been awarded a Caird Library Postdoctoral Fellowship in the National Maritime Museum and the Critical Histories of Art Studentship at UCL.
Teaching
MA History of Art: Circum-Atlantic Visual Culture c. 1770–1830
BA 3 Special Option Course: The Global Print
BA 1 Topic Course: British Art and Empire in London Collections
Publications
Book
The Atlas Unbound: John Webber, James Cook, and the End of Sympathy (under review)
Journal Articles
‘The Little Blue and the Big: Colour, Colonialism, and the Weather in Naiza Khan’s Hundreds of Birds Killed’ (in preparation)
‘The Incendiary Image: Fire and the Archive in William Westall’s Views of Australia’ (under review)
‘The Blue Beyond: Naiza Khan’s Manora and The Left-to-Die-Boat,’ Third Text, ‘Decolonising Colour Forum’ (2021)
‘Sympathy, Magnetism and Immoderate Laughter: the Feather in Cook’s Last Voyage,’ The Art Bulletin 101, no. 4 (Dec. 2019): 70–94,
‘The Cost of Sympathy: Towards a Visual Economics of John Webber’s Atlas,’ Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture 19 (2017): 55–76
Reviews
‘Review of “Artist and Empire: Facing Britain’s Imperial Past,” Tate Britain, London, 25 November 2015 – 10 April 2016,’ Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture 18 (2016): 75,
Catalogue Essays
‘European Rivers c. 1824–39,’ in Tate’s online catalogue J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours (forthcoming)
Public Scholarship
‘James Cook and Adam Smith,’ British Library Untold Lives Blog (2018)
‘James Cook and Benjamin Franklin,’ British Library Untold Lives Blog (2018)
Recent Talks
‘The Atlas Unbound: John Webber, James Cook, and the End of Sympathy,’ Postdoctoral Lecture Series, October 2021, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London
‘Between Westall’s Chaos and Humboldt’s Cosmos: Picturing the Weather in 1848,’ in ‘British Art and Natural Forces: A State of the Field Research Programme,’ November 2020, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London
‘Weaponised Aesthetics: Fireworks and the Burkean Sublime in Cook’s Last Voyage,’ in ‘Captain Cook after 250 Years: Re-exploring the Voyages of James Cook,’ February 2020, Lettres Sorbonne Université, Paris
‘Dazzling Splendour: Alterity and Object in John Webber’s Images of Tonga,’ in ‘Doctoral Research Network Summer Symposium,’ May 2019, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London
‘Troubled Screenings: Landscape Views from James Cook’s Last Voyage and the Right to Look,’ in ‘Past Imperfect: Landscape and Confinement,’ January 2019, UCL, London
‘The Lives and Afterlives of John Webber’s Images of the Pacific (1776–1784),’ part of the Caird Library Research Seminars Programme, April 2019, National Maritime Museum, London
‘Lost and Forgotten: The Story of the First Cook Monument,’ in ‘Memory and Exploration Conference,’ September 2018, National Maritime Museum, London
‘Meetings on the Beach: the Art of John Webber,’ in ‘Art on the Move: A Conference on Mobility in the Long Nineteenth Century,’ January 2018, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Birmingham