MA History of Art

Are you fascinated by visual culture and history relating to a specific artist, period or movement? Do you want to learn about the methods of art history and how to apply them to particular historical problems?

This programme provides you with the opportunity to choose from a range of subject areas and historical periods in History of Art. It is ideal for those who wish to develop a solid foundation in History of Art, either as preparation for further research or for related careers. You will have the opportunity to develop both academic and professional contacts to support your personal and professional development.

Our students are taught within the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, an internationally renowned art gallery located at the University of Birmingham campus. Students are part of small seminar groups and benefit from furthering their study. Classes are taught not only at the Barber Institute, our ‘house gallery’, but also at the galleries on campus and in town.

The programme offers a range of topics all of which relate to our staff research interests and expertise. Modules, which are all on a rotating schedule, range from ‘Inside Out’, which looks at Parisian interiors in the nineteenth century, to modules covering art up to the present day, such as ‘Postcolonial Readings of Contemporary Art’. Others deal with issues such as queer studies and sexuality, globalisation and migration. We also have a strong expertise in exhibition cultures and curatorial studies. There is an optional module on Enterprising Cultures, which explores the ways in which arts organisations can generate revenue and provides you with the opportunity to pitch your own business ideas in the arts sector. Unusual nowadays, we also offer modules on art in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Students taking advantage of our British Art Pathway have the opportunity to investigate and query the narratives of British art. This focus offers exciting possibilities to study a field that is seemingly already well established in terms of institutions and journals which concentrate on British art, and movements (such as the Pre-Raphaelites, Vorticism or the yBAs, the Young British Artists), but still constantly evolving (Black and Queer British art; and with Brexit and its potential impact on art and the art market). It also offers the opportunity to investigate how, when and why nation-state identities have been related to art.

The pathway also covers a number of issues arising from a global context of art. With a quarter of the world population belonging to the British Empire at its height, British Art allows you to explore postcolonial theories, mobility and processes of decolonisation.

Delivered in Birmingham, in the heart of England, the pathway will allow students to explore the impact of global influences locally, through an emphasis on the West Midlands and Birmingham as an arts centre and international supplier for art materials, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Students of this pathway will benefit from the Department’s established network with a wide range of collections in the West Midlands, including the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery with their world-famous Pre-Raphaelite collection, and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, with their BLK Art Group collection. Equally, students will benefit from the Department’s close relationship with national institutions concentrating on British Art. Colleagues from The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art , a part of Yale University based in London, have delivered guest seminars as part of the course in 2021-22 and 2022-23, and a series of Research Seminars will introduce students to cutting-edge research from across the country. (Read more about the 'What is British Art?' module)

At Birmingham, Postgraduate Taught and Postgraduate Research students also have the opportunity to learn graduate academic languages free of charge, to support your studies.