Ben Pollitt specialises in art and maritime exploration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 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, where he also worked as a Teaching Fellow. Ben’s 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 Last of Cook: John Webber’s Atlas and the Object 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. Thanks to a Paul Mellon Research Support Grant, in the summer of 2023 he will be travelling to Australia in preparation for his next book project, ‘Visualising the Elements in the Art of British Maritime Exploration (1766–1820)’
Courses Taught
MA History of Art: Circum-Atlantic Visual Culture c. 1770–1830
BA 3 Special Option Course: The Global Print
BA 3 Special Option Course: Art and Empire in Eighteenth Century London
BA 3 Lessons in Critical Interpretation
BA2/BA3/GD Assessed Essay
BA 2 Artists, Radicals, Mystics: European Art, c. 1800
BA 1 Topic Course: British Art and Empire in London Collections
Publications
Book
The Last of Cook: John Webber’s Atlas and the Object of Sympathy (in progress)
Journal Articles
‘The Blue Beyond: Naiza Khan’s Manora and The Left-to-Die-Boat,’ Third Text, ‘Decolonising Colour Forum’ (2021) (4,000 words)
‘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 River and Lowland Scenes 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)
Conference Papers and Lectures
‘The Sympathetic Cannibal: A Satire (on Diplomacy),’ in ‘Informal Spaces and Practices of Diplomacy, 1750–1850 Symposium,’ September 2023, University of Oxford
‘Twin Craters: Ecological Affinities in Cleveley’s Hekla and Hodges’ Yasur,’ in ‘Errantry, Exile and Elsewhere Conference,’ July 2023, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
‘The Shape of Water in Gabriel Bray’s Circum-Atlantic Images,’ in Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, April 2023, UCL, London
‘From Wreck Reef: Resurfacing Westall’s Views of Australia,’ in ‘Resurfacing: Shipwrecks in Art, History, and Archaeology Conference,’ November 2023, Royal Museums Greenwich and the Warburg Institute, London
‘Colour, Climate, and the Weather,’ in ‘Farbe eint kunst und wissensgeschichte’ Lecture Series, July 2022, Goethe University, Frankfurt
‘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
‘What Was Never Ours: William Westall’s Views of Australian Scenery,’ in ‘Doctoral Research Network Summer Symposium,’ July 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
‘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
‘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
‘Lost and Forgotten: The Story of the First Cook Monument,’ in ‘Memory and Exploration Conference,’ September 2018, National Maritime Museum, London
‘The Other Side of Silence: the Rhetoric of the Sublime in John Webber’s Shooting Sea-Horses (1784)’ in ‘Octagon Friday Forum: Noise,’ June 2018, Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, 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
‘The Representation and Interpretation of James Cook’s Voyages in the 19th and 20th Centuries,’ October 2017, British Library, Boston Spa
‘Contending Genealogies in the Collection and Display of Cook-Related Akua Hulu Manu in the Long Nineteenth Century,’ in ‘The Material Culture of Exploration and Academic Travel, 1700–1900,’ July 2017, Göttingen University, Göttingen
Fellowships and Grants
Jul–Aug 2023 Paul Mellon Centre Research Support Grant
May–Oct 2021 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Paul Mellon Centre for British Art
Mar–Dec 2020 Caird Research Fellowship, National Maritime Museum
Jan–Jun 2020 Teaching Fellowship, Department of History of Art, UCL
Oct 2017–Jun 2020 Critical Histories of Art Studentship, Department of History of Art, UCL
Apr–Jun 2018 Caird Research Fellowship, National Maritime Museum
Nov 2016 Paul Mellon Centre Research Support Grant
Apr 2015 Andrew Wyld Research Support Grant