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Dr. Benjamin Thomas

Associate Professor (History Of Art)
      
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Dr. Benjamin Thomas

Associate Professor (History Of Art)

 bethomas@tcd.ie

 


I am an art historian, a curator, and a teacher in higher education. I have an international reputation for the quality of my academic research, and have published on a wide range of art historical topics in peer-reviewed publications. I studied Modern History at the University of Oxford as an undergraduate (1987-90), where my tutors included Paul Langford, Susan Brigden and Gervase Rosser. I remained at Oxford for my postgraduate studies in History of Art, where I was taught by Francis Haskell and David Eskerdjian, and supervised for my DPhil on 'The Paragone Debate and Sixteenth-Century Italian Art' (1997) by David Franklin. I worked at the Ashmolean Museum as the Fortnum Archive Project Officer, and at Worcester College, Oxford, as a print cataloguer before moving to the University of Kent in 1999. Exhibitions I have curated include The Paradox of Mezzotint at University College Art Museum in London in 2008, Alfred Drury and the New Sculpture at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery in Leeds in 2014, Drawing Together at The Courtauld Gallery in London in 2017, and Raphael: The Drawings at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 2017 (co-curated with Catherine Whistler). Raphael: The Drawings won the Apollo Exhibition of the Year Award and was also awarded a Global Fine Art Award. I was the inaugural curator of Studio 3 Gallery at the University of Kent from 2010-15. In this role, I worked with leading contemporary artists including: Ana Maria Pacheco, John Blackburn, Art & Language, Paul Coldwell, Marcus Rees Roberts, Rose Hilton, Richard Rome, and Humphrey Ocean. I have been awarded University of Kent teaching awards, and have been nominated for national teaching prizes, in recognition of my innovative practice-based approach to teaching Art History. I took up the post of Associate Professor in History of Renaissance Art at Trinity College Dublin in 2024.
Poussin and the Theory of Hatching in, editor(s)Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings and Naomi Lebens , Placing Prints: New Developments in the Study of Print 1400-1800, Brill, 2025, [Ben Thomas], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Circular Arguments: Edgar Wind at Chicago, 1942-44 in, editor(s)Jaynie Anderson, Bernardino Branca and Fabio Tononi , Edgar Wind: Art and Embodiment, Oxford-Berlin-Bruxelles-Chennai-Lausanne-New York, Peter Lang, 2024, pp329 - 351, [Ben Thomas], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
Maurizio Cinquegrani, Theresa Mikuriya, Ben Thomas (curated by Ben Thomas), 'The Poetry of Place', Canterbury, 2024, -, Notes: [https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/studio3gallery/2024/02/13/the-poetry-of-place/], Exhibition, PUBLISHED  URL
Ben Thomas, 'Poetry & Magic - Celebrating Anita Seppilli', Italian Cultural Institute London, Italian Cultural Institute London, 2023, -, Notes: [An online catalogue accompanied the exhibition, and there were 3 public talks involving: Martina Mazzotta, Marcelle Hanselaar, Theresa Mikuriya, Ana Maria Pacheco, Michael Phillips, John Tresch, Iain Sinclair and Kate Tomas.], Exhibition, PUBLISHED
Ana Maria Pacheco (curated by Ben Thomas), 'Remember', 2023, -, Notes: [https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/studio3gallery/2023/10/09/remember-by-ana-maria-pacheco/], Exhibition, PUBLISHED  URL
Ben Thomas, Freedom and Exile: Edgar Wind and the Congress for Cultural Freedom, The Edgar Wind Journal, 1, 2021, p67 - 85, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Ben Thomas, Edgar Wind and Modern Art: In Defence of Marginal Anarchy, Paperback, London, Bloomsbury, 2020, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
Ben Thomas and Catherine Whistler (eds), Raphael: Drawing and Eloquence, Urbino, Accademia Raffaello, 2020, Notes: [Edited volume with essays by: Ben Thomas, Marzia Faetti, Francesco di Teodoro, Angelamaria Aceto, Catherine Whistler, David Love, Ita Mac Carthy, Christian K. Kleinbub and Alexandra Kocsis.], Book, PUBLISHED
Raphael Invenit: Drawing, Eloquence and Print in, editor(s)Ben Thomas and Catherine Whistler , Raphael: Drawing and Eloquence, Urbino, Accademia Raffaello, 2020, pp19 - 40, [Ben Thomas], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Ben Thomas, Humphrey Ocean, London, Royal Academy, 2019, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
  

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My principal area of research is Renaissance Art. In particular, I have explored the intersection of art theory and artistic practice from the Fifteenth through to the Seventeenth Century. In addition, I have been working on the significance of prints for the emerging discipline of Art History during the early modern period; research which will culminate in the book 'Multiple Histories: Episodes in the History of Printmaking'. Another research interest is the historiography of art, where I have carried out extensive research on the art historian and philosopher Edgar Wind. I have carried out a wide-range of research as practice through my work as a curator, including contributions in the fields of contemporary art, nineteenth-century art, the graphic arts, and the anthropological study of magic.