Professor James Hall BA (Cambridge), MA, (Courtauld) PhD (Cambridge)
Research Professor
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James Hall is Research Professor at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.
James is an art historian and critic. He has worked as chief art critic for The Guardian, and as London reviewer for Artforum. An experienced public lecturer and radio broadcaster, he contributes to many journals and publications, including Times Literary Supplement, Guardian Review, Art Newspaper, Burlington Magazine and Oxford Art Journal. He has taught courses on self-portraiture, and Michelangelo at the Courtauld Institute of Art summerschool.
James is author of four major books and numerous catalogue essays, journal articles and reviews. His most recent book, The Self-Portrait: a Cultural History (Thames and Hudson, 2014), immediately established itself as the standard work on its subject, and has been translated into five languages. James is now frequently called upon to comment on selfie culture, and to write lead catalogue essays on artist-centred art (Antony Gormley at Alan Cristea, Raqib Shaw at White Cube, Adrian Ghenie at Thaddaeus Ropac; Ich bin hier - museums in Karlsruhe, Lyon and Edinburgh, NGS). He has recently published landmark essays on Michelangelo in the Burlington Magazine and Simiolus.
James’ approach is interdiciplinary and historicist but with an acute awareness of contemporary resonance. He is especially interested in the way that current assumptions and ideologies distort our view of past and present. He frequently traces the history of ideas, symbols, media and image types. Examples include the myth of Narcissus and the vogue for ‘full-frontal’ portraits (The Self-Portrait); the ‘rise’ of sculpture in the round, and theories of touch (The World as Sculpture, Chatto, 1999); the changing symbolism of left and right (The Sinister Side, OUP, 2008); creative destruction and body language (Michelangelo, Chatto, 2005); the history of museums, galleries and display. Samples of my writing can be found here.
Two future book projects spanning past and present have emerged from his work on artists: the relationship between sex, chastity and ideas of genius; and the history of ‘acting out’ / ‘method acting’ by artists. He is currently writing a history of the artist's studio for Thames and Hudson.