Richard Read

Richard Read is Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, Perth. He wrote the first book on British art critic Adrian Stokes, which won a national book prize, and has published on the relationship between literature and the visual arts, Giotto, Rembrandt, the British Grand Tour of Italy over three centuries, nineteenth and twentieth-century art critical theory, and complex images in global contexts. His latest publications include a chapter on the relations of contemporary art and politics, a new mode of ‘trajective’ art criticism and the rise of popularism, and a long review on Australian exhibition history.

His book project on The Reversed Painting in Western Art was funded by an ARC Discovery Grant. His anthology of essays, Colonization and Wilderness: Nineteenth-century American and Australian Landscape Paintings coedited with Professor Kenneth Haltman (University of Oklahoma) will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2019 and his research for a book on Sensory Perception, History and Ecology: the Aftermath of Molyneux’s Problem in Nineteenth Century Landscape Painting and Cultural Thought will be pursued at a residency at Yale Centre for British Art in 2019 and is contracted for publication with Cambridge University Press. He has been a visiting scholar at several American and British universities and is a prolific lecturer both locally and internationally. He welcomes well-qualified PhD candidates with interests in his fields of expertise.

Public lectures in 2015

1) ‘Negation, Possibilization, Emergence and the Reversed Painting’, IAS Research Seminar, University of Durham, 19 Jan. 2015 

2) Contribution on ‘Anecdotes’, Centre for Visual Arts and Culture postgraduate seminar 20 Jan., 

3) ‘Nested Interior and Technological Traffic in Charles Scheelers and Richard Hamilton’s Domestic Interior Paintings’ to Centre for Visual Arts and Culture postgraduate seminar, University of Durham, 2 Feb. 

4) 'Anglo-Italian Contrasts: Three Centuries' Verbal and Visual Picturing of British Difference from Italy’, to staff and postgraduates of the English Literature Department, 11 Feb.

5) ‘The Reversed Canvas in Colonial Art: the emergence of western painting and ‘Coming into Hiding’ of colonial peoples’, IAS Public lecture, Trevelyan College, 12 Feb.,

6) ‘Would Pierre Bonnard have been a Better Candidate for Merleau Ponty’s Essay on “Cézanne’s Doubt”?’, Department of Philosophy, 13 Feb. 

7) ‘Apocalyptic Skies and the Decay of Public Meaning’, college lecture and showing of Von Triers’ Melancholia film to students and staff at Trevelyan College, University of Durham, 17 Feb. 

8) collaborative lecture with Dr Martin Coward, ‘The Representation of Technology in Domestic Interiors and Surveillance’, Trevelyan College, University of Durham, 24 Feb. 

9) ‘Byzantine Mosaics’, public lecture, New Norcia Benedictine Community, 24 Nov. 25) 10) ‘The Emotional Historiography of Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse (1962), Emotions and Philosophy in Cinema Symposium, Centre for the History of Emotions, UWA, 4 Dec.

Public lectures 2016

1) ‘Thing Theory’, English Seminar, UWA, Feb. 2016

2) ‘Colonisation and Wilderness in Nineteenth-Century American and Australian Landscape Painting’, Lecture to the Friend of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, for Continental Shift: Nineteenth Century American and Australian Landscape Paintings, 21 Aug.

3) ‘The Picturesque in Britain, America and Australia’, HART3990: Colonization & Wilderness in Nineteenth-Century American and Australian Landscape Painting, , 23 Aug.

4) ‘The Sublime in Europe, America and Australia’, HART3990: Colonization & Wilderness in Nineteenth-Century American and Australian Landscape Painting, 23 Aug.

5) ‘The Sublime in Europe, America and Australia’, HART3990: Colonization & Wilderness in Nineteenth-Century American and Australian Landscape Painting, 23 Aug.
6) ‘Empiricism versus Revelation: Theories of Perception and Landscape’, HART3990: Colonization & Wilderness in Nineteenth-Century American and Australian Landscape Painting 2 lectures, 30 August
7) 'Perception, History and Ecology: the Heritage of Molyneux’s Question in Representations of New World Landscapes', International Symposium, Colonisation and Wilderness in American and Australian Landscape Painting, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 27-28 Sept. 
8) Academic Board Dinner Emeritus speech
9) ‘The Art Work as It-Narrative: The Useful Uselessness of Images Displayed in Transition’, ‘The Work of Art’ Conference, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, ANU, Canberra, 2 Dec.

Public lectures 2017
1) Guided Tour of Continental Shift exhibition, 4 January
2) Studios as Ships: Reflexive Fantasies of Romantic Travel’, Romantic Transports Conference, Romantic Studies Association of Australasia, University of Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand, Feb. 162) ‘Framed and Unframed Art: Renaissance Perspective Science and Aboriginal Rock Painting’, 27 Oct.
3) ‘Anthony Gormley and his Impact’, Friends of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, 30 April3) ‘The Renaissance, Corsini Collection exhibition’, Gallery Guides, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 27 Nov
4) Feed-back coordinator of all-day postgraduate sessions with Associate Professor Alison Inglis, University of Melbourne, Art and its Directions, AAANZ conference, 2017, 6 December
5) Session convener of six lectures, ‘Containers, containment, transfer and symbolic orders’, Art and its Directions, AAANZ conference, 2017, 7 December
6) introduction of keynote speaker, Professor Anthony Gardner, Head of School, Ruskin School of Art, and Fellow, Queen’s College, University of Oxford, 8 Dec.
7) Convener, Open Session, Art and its Directions, AAANZ conference, 2017, 8 Dec.8) Prize giving awards, chair of judging panel, anthology prize, Art and its Directions, AAANZ conference, 2017, 8 Dec.

Public lectures 2018
1) ‘Art and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century American and Australian Landscape Painting: the Emotional Tenor of Species Extinction’, EcoPeoPle Symposium: Thinking Environment, Feeling Nature, UWA 15 February 2018
2) ‘Reformation and Counter-Reformation Art: the Corsini Collection’, Gallery Guides, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 16 Feb.
3) ‘The Baroque: the Corsini Collection exhibition, Art Gallery of Western Australia, March.
4) ‘Zakon Ben David’s Blackfield and Javanese Shadow Theatre: Light and Shadow, East and West’, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, 23 April 
5) ‘’Studio and World’, Ural Federation University, Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Federation, June 2018
6) ‘Apocalyptic Skies’,  Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre, Ekaterinburg, June 2018
7) ‘Apolcalytpic Skies’,  Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, July 20189)
8) ‘'Seeing and Looking: Monet, Cézanne and French Impressionism’, Melville Recreation Centre, 5 Oct.[i] 
9) chair of masterclass and paper on The Senses in the Premodern World A Masterclass with Professor Susan Broomhall (The University of Western Australia) and Dr Lisa Beavan, 12 Oct.
10) ‘Skin and Cloth in Acheiropoetia and Painting: Staining, Erasure and Reversibility’, Skin in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds conference, Centre for the History of Emotion, UWA, 13 October with introduction of guest speaker, Dr Lisa Beaven.
11) ‘Apocalyptic Skies and the Decline of Public Symbolism’, lecture, Perth Medieval and Renaissance Society, 22 October
12) ‘What is Good and Bad Art?’ (parodic title), 1 pm, Duchamp Exhibition, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, 27 October
13) ‘Trajective Art Criticism in the Era of Democratic Retreat’, 51^st AICA International Congress, Taiwan, 14-21 November, 2018
14) ‘The Anthropogenic Aftermath of Molyneux’s Question in Nineteenth-Century American and Australia Landscape Painting’, in ‘More-than-human Social Relations in the Anthropocene: Art, Extinction and Nonhuman Futures at Home and Abroad, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, RMIT, Melbourne, 5-8 December

Public Lectures 2019

1) ‘The Glass Canoe and the Honey-Eater: Roger Leever’s Outsider Art of Elation’, A. H. Bracks Library, Melville, 7 February 

2) ‘Renaissance Perspective Painting and Aboriginal Rock Art: Framed and Unframed Art,’ A. H. Bracks Library, Melville, 7 March

3) ‘Landscape and Nature,’ Romanticism and Revolution unit, ENGL2604,  for Romanticism and Revolution (ENGL2604), English and Cultural Studies, UWA, 18 March

4)‘The Aftermath of Molyneux’s Question in Nineteenth-Century British and American Landscape Painting’, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 13 May.

5) ‘Framed and Unframed Art: Renaissance Perspective Science and Aboriginal Rock Painting’, Glyde-In Centre, East Fremantle, 4 June

5) ‘Global Art History in 1930s Britain: the Roman Perspective’, British School at Rome, September

6) ‘Trajective Art Criticism in the Era of Retreat from Democracy,’ Nes Artists’ Residency, Skagaströnd, North West Iceland. 11 November

7) ‘Death: the Common Unsharable,’ NES Artist’s Residency, Skagaströnd, North West Iceland, 19 November

8) ‘What is Good and Bad Art?’, Icelandic Textile Centre, Blóndüos, North West Iceland, 25 November

Public lectures 2020

‘Town Planning and the Development of the Modern Circulating City,’ A. H. Bracks Library, Melville, January 28

‘Greek Sculpture and the Parthenon,’ in Art and Changing World Pictures Series, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, Bunbury, January 29

‘Constable’s Skies’, A.H. Bracks Library, Melville, 25 February

‘Byzantine Mosaics at Ravenna,’ in Art and Changing World Pictures Series, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, Bunbury, 26 February

‘Theories of Perception and the Aesthetics of Landscape Painting in Britain, Australia and the United States,’ Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group, UWA 3 March

‘The Sublime,’ art class with Juliette Paton Williams, A. H. Bracks Library, Melville, 26 March POSTPONED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS

‘Good Government in Medieval Siena,’ Art and Changing World Pictures Series, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, Bunbury, Online lecture, followed by Zoom meeting, 27 May

Zoom meeting on ‘Good Government in Medieval Siena,’ BRAG, 27 May

‘Constable’s Skies,’ online lecture, AH Bracks library, 26- 28 June

‘Framing Renaissance Art: Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation,’ Art and Changing World Pictures Series, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, 1 July 

‘‘”I must take this”: Reason, Madness and Reversal in Goya’s Paintings and Etchings,’ Perth Medieval and Renaissance Society, August, forthcoming

‘A Pictorial History of the Skies: the Last Thousand Years,’ A. H. Bracks Library, Melville, forthcoming, October

‘A Favourite early Western Australian painting: Thomas Turner’s Hardy’s Inlet, 1830s,’ Margaret River Historical Society, Margaret River, forthcoming, 3 December

‘A Favourite early Western Australian painting: Thomas Turner’s Hardy’s Inlet, 1830s,’ forthcoming, December

Public lectures 2021

‘Byzantine Mosaics at Ravenna,’ Mosaicists group, Te House Books, Denmark, WA, January

Editorial work

1) External editor, The Outwardness of Art: Selected Writings of Adrian Stokes, ed. Thomas Evans(London and New York, Ridinghouse, 2020)[ii]

2) External editor of all contributions to Contingency and Improvisation in Contemporary Art, special edition of Art and Documentation Journal (Poland) edited by Dr Malgorzata Kaźmierczak (Faculty of Painting and New Media of the Academy of Art of Szczecin, Poland.

3) External reviewer and author of overview for Sydney contemporary artist Nola Farman, Monograph, Sydney, forthcoming

Getty Institute Summer Seminar in Art Theory and Visual Studies, University of Rochester, including travel, all expenses and US$1,000 stipend (competitive jury), 1999

Paul Mellon Fellow, British School at Rome, 3 months, including board, accommodation and £4,000 stipend (competitive jury), 2001-02 

Non-stipendiary Fellow, University of Warwick programme in Art History at Venice, 2003

Visiting Scholar, Department of Art History, University of Plymouth, March-April, 2009 Institute of Advanced Studies Benjamin Meaker Fast Track Visiting Professor, University of Bristol (competitive jury), 2010

Founding Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Study of the History of the Emotions, UWA, 2010

Senior Research Fellow, Department of Art History, University of East Anglia, 2011

Three seminars on my book The Reversed Painting in Western Art with 30 mostly professorial, funded discutants in several disciplines, King’s College, University of Cambridge, 30 March- 5 April, 2014 (all expenses)

Senior Research Fellow, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, University of East Anglia, several lectures,15 -30 March, 6 - 10 April 2014

Research fellow, Department of Art History, University of Maryland, Washington D. C., several lectures, 12 April- 6 June, 2014

Invited Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Durham, 3 months, (all expenses including travel, honorarium, £2,500), 2005[i]

Visiting Scholar, working on ‘Ecology and Perception in Nineteenth-century American Landscape Painting and Aesthetic Writing, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, USA April-May 2019 (all expenses, travel + stipend)

Visiting Scholar, British School at Rome, working on Global Art History in 1930s Britain: the Roman Dimension’, September, 2019, subsidized apartment

NES Artist’s Residency, Skagaströnd, North West Iceland, working on ‘Trajective Art Criticism and the Retreat from Democracy,’ November, 2019, subsidized apartment