Dr Joanne Anderson

Biography

Joanne is Reader in Art History specialising in late medieval and Renaissance art, with a particular expertise in the visual representations of Mary Magdalen. She is author of Moving with the Magdalen: Late Medieval Art and Devotional Practice in the Alps (Bloomsbury, 2019) and has featured on Britain's Lost Masterpieces (BBC4) and In Our Time (BBC R4) on the topic of the saint. Her broader research interests extend to the sacralising of the landscape and female patronage in the late middle ages, and 20th-century exhibition history.

Prior to joining Aberdeen, Joanne worked at the Warburg Institute in London (2015-2019). She has also held positions at Birkbeck (2014-15), the University of Sussex (2013-14) and the University of Warwick (2009-2013), the latter period including her role as editorial assistant of The Art Bulletin (CAA, New York).

MA (Hons), English and History of Art, University of Aberdeen
MA, History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art
PhD, History of Art, University of Warwick

Joanne's weekly drop-in hour during semesters: Monday 12-1pm

Or email to arrange an appointment 

Research Overview

Joanne Anderson is a specialist in the imagery of Mary Magdalen, working with paintings, altarpieces, prints and glass. She has recently published a book on the artworks that manifest the saint’s cult in the central European Alps in the late middle ages. In general, artistic exchange, the circulation of visual types and environmental conditions inform her work about visual culture and the geographies of art history; particularly the concept of Kunstlandschaft, which originates from pre- and inter war German discourse on the relation of art to its native territory by means of a unified style but has since developed to encompass other shared criteria. 

A new project in development will examine the agency of art and landscape, focusing on the Alps during the pre- and early modern periods. This builds on publications on the experience of art when travelling and the relationality of art to poverty, both in mountain settings.

When not wearing her ‘early person’ hat, Joanne researches 20^th-century exhibition history.

Current Research

Joanne’s new medieval research project will focus on art in the landscape, proposing a new way of approaching images and objects from the standpoint of experiential experience. She is particularly in interested in how environment and time influences the production, function and perception of art produced for Alpine communities as linked to the seasonal migrations of artistic workshops. The project springs from her work in the Alps and questions raised whilst travelling on foot in the mountains, during varying weather conditions.

Joanne is also working on a monograph dedicated to the touring exhibition, Frescoes from Florence/The Great Age of Fresco (1968-72), which was displayed at the Hayward Gallery, London in 1969. The book focuses on questions of logistics, educational strategy and reception in popular and academic domains. 

Collaborations

Joanne was recently the Co-Investigator of the AHRC Research Network, A Vision for Europe: Academic Action and Responsibility: https://visionforeurope.arts.ac.uk/

Principle Investigator: Mick Finch (Central St Martins, University of the Arts London)

Project Partner: Johannes von Müller (Bilderfahrzeuge Project, The Warburg Institute)

The network investigated the material archive of the 1941 exhibition, English Art and the Mediterranean, organised by Fritz Saxl and Rudolf Wittkower, then director and photographic collection curator of the Warburg Institute. This exhibition, and its later publication, British Art and the Mediterranean, argued for a common European cultural tradition in a time of international crisis. The network brought together artists, historians, media theorists, curators, journalists, photographers and activists to reactivate this unique archival resource and explore its historical significance and contemporary resonance in the current Brexit climate.

Joanne co-curated the exhibitions, Bilder auf Wanderschaft. Das Warburg Institute und eine britische Kunstgeschichte (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich 29 May-30 June 2019) and  Ruins in the Archive: Constructing Visual Histories in Photography and Broadcast Media (British School at Rome, 14-430 Nov 2019) and co-edited the accompanying catalogue, Image Journeys. The Warburg Institute and a British Art History (Passau: Klinger Verlag, 2019).

https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/research-at-csm/a-vision-for-europe

Information about the 2016 pilot event can be found at: http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/whats-on/events/vision-europe

Funding and Grants

AHRC Research Network Grant, awarded 2019-20