Research Seminar | Towards a History of the Mediation of Photographic Portraits and Self-Portraits of Women Artists

Research Seminar | Towards a History of the Mediation of Photographic Portraits and Self-Portraits of Women Artists: Some Lines of Reflection

Wednesday 25 March, 4 — 6.10pm

Lecture Room 6 (Room 222), Arts Building, University of Birmingham

Drinks reception 5.30 — 6.10pm

Free. Open to students, staff and the general public.

This research seminar draws on published and ongoing work to reflect on the image of women artists conveyed by the press in the first half of the 20th century in Germany.

Based on an analysis of magazines like Uhu and Der Querschnitt and case studies of Renée Sintenis and Käthe Kollwitz, it will reflect on gender issues of representation and professionalisation through reproductions of photographic portraits and self-portraits.

Käthe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait (lithograph, 1915), reproduced on the cover of Zeitbilder, 26 June 1927

About the speaker:

Professor Marie Gispert is a professor of contemporary art history and co-director of the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at Grenoble Alpes University. A specialist in German art from the first half of the 20th century, she also works on the phenomena of mediation through museums, exhibitions and the press. She has published extensively in these fields, including the books Jean Cassou: Une histoire du musée (Presses du réel, 2022) and La Femme à la cigarette: Otto Dix (Scala, 2011), plus the edited collections L’exposition à l’ouvrage. Histoire, formes et enjeux du catalogue d’exposition (HiCSA Éditions, 2025), Regards croisés sur Käthe Kollwitz (Éditions Atelier contemporain, 2023), and Critique(s) d’art: nouveaux corpus, nouvelles méthodes (HiCSA Éditions, 2019).

Professor Gispert also is contributor to the new book, Erotic Art in Modern Germany: Visual Cultures of Sex, 1871-1945 (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Visual Cultures and German Contexts series, 2026), co-edited by Dr Ty Wanover and University of Birmingham art historian, Dr Camilla Smith. Dr Smith will briefly introduce this new volume and join Prof. Gispert for a panel discussion and questions from the audience.

This research seminar is hosted by the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham.