Local and Global: Medieval Art in an Age of New Nationalisms, ICMA at The Courtauld Lecture, lecture by Adam Cohen (University of Toronto), February 22, 2017, 5:30–7:00 pm

In light of recent world events, this talk addresses some of the disciplinary questions about methodology and classification that underlie the study and teaching of medieval art today. It focuses on the tension between working intellectually and practically in an ever-expanding global environment and attending at the same time to the particulars of specific historical contexts. The consideration of borders ranges from the geographic to the temporal and from cultural to confessional. Among the specific topics to be treated are the role and implications of Jewish art, both in the medieval world and in modern scholarship; the practice of art history in the European and Chinese academies; and the challenges of writing a new survey of medieval art.

Lecture followed by a reception sponsored by Sam Fogg.

Dr Adam S. Cohen is Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Toronto, where he has taught since 2003. While completing his PhD at The Johns Hopkins University (1995), he worked in the Manuscripts Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum. His research interests include illuminated manuscripts, monastic art, and the use of visual culture as a tool in Christian-Jewish polemics. He has just completed a three-year Getty Connecting Art Histories project with the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. With Linda Safran, he is the current editor of Gesta.