Past events
Fri, 14 August 2026
10:00AM
Blur Analysis: Research, visual culture, and the digital
Ian Andrews, Margie Borschke, Katrina Grant, Paul B. Jaskot, Machine Listening, Yvonne Low, Brett Neilson, Ned Rossiter, Asti Sherring, Adrian Vickers, and Andrew Yip
A symposium about research using digital tools, and against research as a tool of the digital
Thu, 13 August 2026
6:30PM
Art History and the Cultural Character of War
Paul B. Jaskot
A lecture on architecture and urban planning as central to the Nazi military occupation of Europe. An event to mark Paul B. Jaskot's new book, "The Tyranny of the Object: An Introduction to the Barbarism of Art History", published by Power Publications.
Thu, 13 August 2026
3:00PM
Making the modern Middle East: The new artist-illustrators, 1842-1890
Mary Roberts, Ekaterina Heath, and Lucy Pittman
A roundtable on the rise of new illustrated newspapers in the 19th century, and the ways in which urban modernity in the Islamicate world was at the heart of emerging theories of aesthetic modernism in France.
Tue, 11 August 2026
11:00AM
Bodies as mediums of modernity
Terry Smith
A lecture about Edgar Degas and Willem de Kooning, Suzanne Valadon and Frida Kahlo. Part Two of Professor Terry Smith's lecture series, "Visions, bodies, shadows, worlds".
Thu, 6 August 2026
3:00PM
A great fire and whirling smoke
Marie Ngiam
A presentation by visiting scholar Marie Ngiam (University of Oslo) on arboreal aesthetics and the transcultural agency of tree burls.
Tue, 4 August 2026
11:00AM
Visual allegories of seeing as knowing
Terry Smith
A lecture about Piero Della Francesca's painting of St Augustine, Giorgione, and Plato’s Allegory of the cave. Part One of Professor Terry Smith's lecture series, "Visions, bodies, shadows, worlds".
Wed, 24 June 2026
6:00PM
In conversation: Melissa Chiu and Maud Page
A discussion about Australian, Asian and global art with Melissa Chiu, incoming director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and Maud Page, director of the Art Gallery of NSW.
Thu, 11 June 2026
6:30PM
Words on art: The writings of Okwui Enwezor
Daniel Boyd, Daniel Browning, Suzanne Cotter, Louise Neri, and Terry Smith
A panel conversation on the writings of Okwui Enwezor, the Nigerian curator who from the 1990s until his death in 2019 pioneered new frameworks for understanding and exhibiting African and global contemporary art.
Thu, 11 June 2026
9:00AM
REMEMORY: Living Solidarities, Embodied Futures
Ming Tiampo, Nav Haq, Brett Neilson, Benjamin Work, Bruce Johnson McLean, Reem Fadda, Gabriela Golder, Michael Dagostino, Ryan Inouye, Latoya Aroha Rule, and Helen Grace
A keynote presentation and three panel discussions with scholars, artists and curators interrogating the global reach and ambition of contemporary art, the publics it addresses, and the modes of solidarities it can generate.
Thu, 28 May 2026
4:01PM
Exhibition on Pan-Nationalism: The Studio, Jugend, and Art Nouveau curated by Callum Gallagher
Curated exhibition from the Schaeffer Fine Arts Library’s Rare collection of The Studio alongside selections from the German journal Jugend, the exhibition examines how Art Nouveau challenged artistic traditions through decoration, organic forms, and the blending of cultural influences.