Dr Michael Tymkiw
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Email
mtymkiw@essex.ac.uk -
Location
6.131, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Tues 15–16h, other times by appointment (please email)
Profile
Biography
Michael received a BA from Yale University and a PhD in Art History from the University of Chicago, where he also completed an MBA. Before coming to Essex, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz--Max Planck Institut. He is currently Field Editor for Twentieth-Century Art at caa.reviews and a member of the Conference Committee for the Association of Art History. Michael specializes in modern and contemporary visual culture, with a particular interest in issues of spectatorship. His recent work has focused on three areas of research: The first is a book about Nazi exhibition design and modernism, which was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2018. This project considers how Nazi exhibition design served as a surprising field of formal experimentation for artists, architects, designers, and government officials to draw upon and reconfigure key practices and principles associated with modernism. A key motivation behind such experimentation, this book argues, was the interest in provoking "engaged spectatorship"--attempts to elicit experiences among exhibition-goers that would pique their desire to become involved in wider processes of social and political change. A second area of research, which builds on Michael's interest in spectatorship but moves to forms of visual culture beyond exhibition spaces, investigates the phenomenon of walking on art from the 1920s through the present. This project involves two strands of work. One considers floor-based applied art from interwar Europe, such as Fascist Italian pavement mosaics (the subject of a 2019 Art Bulletin essay) and the rugs of the Brazilian-born, Paris-based designer Ivan Da Silva Bruhns (the topic of a forthcoming essay in West 86th). Another strand focuses on ground-based works of fine art created from the 1950s onward in Asia, the Americas, and Europe--the theme of a current book project provisionally titled "The Body Politics of Walking on Art, 1950s–Now." This book seeks to provide the first comprehensive account of the wider postwar phenomenon of walking on art in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, with an emphasis on tracing the complex set of motivations that fueled the emergence and proliferation of "walkable art" across different makers, movements, and geographies. A final area of research examines intersections between digital technologies and spectatorship. One example of this research is a series of eye-tracking experiments about the relationship between museum display practices and normative viewing behavior, the findings of which were summarized in a 2020 Leonardo article. Another example is an ongoing project that analyzes how soundscapes shape a spectator's experiences of art and artifacts in virtual and physical exhibition spaces, and how soundscapes may ultimately be used to spur critical thinking among spectators within such sites.
Qualifications
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PhD, Art History University of Chicago,
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MBA (with honors) University of Chicago,
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BA (cum laude), French Yale University,
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Spectatorship
Histories of modernism
Exhibition design and curation
The relationship between art and politics
The use of digital technologies in museums and galleries
Intersections between pre-modern and modern art
Conferences and presentations
Walking on (and around) Doris Salcedo’s Floor-Based Artworks
Works on the Floor Symposium, 16/12/2022
Calling All Robotized Pedestrians! Carlos Cruz-Diez’s Painted Walkways in Mid-1970s Caracas
Association for Art History, 17/4/2021
Engaged Spectatorship: The Stakes of Modern Exhibition Design under National Socialism
Invited presentation, Jena, Germany, 29/5/2019
Otto Andreas Schreiber, Modernism, and Mass-Produced Exhibitions
Invited presentation, Unbewältigt? Ästhetische Moderne und Nationalsozialismus: Kunst, Kunsthandel, Ausstellungspraxis, Berlin, Germany, 17/5/2019
Nazi Exhibition Design and Modernism
Invited presentation, London, United Kingdom, 29/8/2018
Stepping on Carpets by Eileen Gray
Invited presentation, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 9/5/2018
Paper: "Nazi Exhibition Design and the Spectre of the Avant-Garde," Dictators and Degenerates: Modernism, Fascism, and the Pursuit of Culture (University College Dublin, Sept 2017)
Dictators and Degenerates: Modernism, Fascism, and the Pursuit of Culture, Dublin, Ireland, 2017
Paper: "Rethinking the Canon of Modern Exhibition Design: The Laboratory Period and National Socialism," Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference (Aug 2017)
Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2017
Session co-chair: "The Return of History: Reconstructing Art Exhibitions in the 21st Century," Association of Art Historians Annual Conference (April 2016)
Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2016
Paper: "Digitally Reactivating Museums for Expanded Disability Access," College Art Association Annual Conference (Feb 2016)
College Art Association Annual Conference, Washington D.C., United States, 2016
Paper: "Center / Periphery: The Relationship between Museums and Non-Museum Exhibitions," Museums under National Socialism (Deutsches Historisches Museum, June 2013)
Museums under National Socialism, Berlin, Germany, 2013
Paper: "Abstraction as Ornament: Visualizing Volksgemeinschaft," College Art Association Annual Conference (Feb 2013)
College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, United States, 2013
Paper: "Photomontage in German Propaganda Exhibitions (1928-1942)," German Studies Association Annual Conference (Oct 2012)
German Studies Association Annual Conference, Portland, United States, 2012
Paper: "National Socialist Factory Exhibitions: Making, Consuming, Gendering," Exhibiting Industry (Université de Lausanne, June 2012)
Exhibiting Industry, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2012
Paper: "The Worker as Artist: National Socialist Factory Exhibitions during Wartime," Association of Art Historians Annual Conference (April 2011)
Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, Loughborough, United Kingdom, 2011
Paper: "Debunking the Myth of the Unsullied Wehrmacht," Word and Image: Visual Dialogues (University of Pennsylvania, Feb 2006)
Word and Image: Visual Dialogues, Philadelphia, United States, 2006
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Collect, Curate, Display: A Short History of the Museum (AR117)
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Study Trip Abroad (Year 2) (AR224)
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Contemporary Art: 1945 until Now (AR228)
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Study Trip Abroad (Final Year) (AR342)
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Practical Skills for Curatorial Work (AR912)
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Critique and Curating (AR941)
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Exhibition and Portfolio (AR952)
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Exhibition (Joint Project) (AR953)
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Seminar Series for Art History (AR975)
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Final Project: Writing Art History (AR980)
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Dissertation - MA Schemes (AR981)
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Dangerous Ideas: Essays and Manifestos as Social Criticism Capstone (CS301)
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Work-Based Project (AR982)
Current supervision
Previous supervision
Degree subject: Curating
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 7/12/2022
Degree subject: Curating
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 4/11/2021
Degree subject: Art History and Theory
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 22/5/2020
Degree subject: Art History and Theory
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 11/7/2017
Publications
Journal articles (11)
Tymkiw, L., Carlos Cruz-Diez’s Ephemeral Painted Walkways and the Politics of Mobility in Mid-1970s Caracas. Oxford Art Journal
Tymkiw, M., (2024). Please Walk on This: Gutai and the Emergence of Walkable Art. Art History. 47 (1), 14-43
Tymkiw, L. and Roman, A., (2022). In conversation with Cildo Meireles. Art Journal. 81 (3), 22-38
Al-Taie, I., Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco, P., Tymkiw, M., Williams, D. and Daly, I., (2022). Sonic enhancement of virtual exhibits. PLoS One. 17 (8), e0269370-e0269370
Tymkiw, M., (2021). Planes of Immanence: Walking on Carl Andre’s Art in Moments of Protest. Art History. 44 (2), 226-254
Tymkiw, M. and Foulsham, T., (2020). Eye Tracking, Spatial Biases, and Normative Spectatorship in Museums. Leonardo. 53 (5), 542-546
Tymkiw, M., (2019). Floor Mosaics, Romanità, and Spectatorship: The Foro Mussolini’s Piazzale dell’Impero. The Art Bulletin. 101 (2), 109-132
Tymkiw, M., (2013). Art to the Worker! National Socialist Fabrikausstellungen, Slippery Household Goods and Volksgemeinschaft. Journal of Design History. 26 (4), 362-380
Tymkiw, M., (2007). Debunking the myth of the saubere Wehrmacht. Word & Image. 23 (4), 485-492
Martinez, JL. and Tymkiw, M., (2007). On the Need to Consume: An Interview with Manthia Diawara. Chicago Art Journal. 17, 112-127
Tymkiw, M., (2006). Word and Image / Resemblance and Similitude - René Magritte: The Key to Dreams. Chicago Art Journal. 16
Books (1)
Tymkiw, M., (2018). Nazi Exhibition Design and Modernism. University of Minnesota Press. 978-1-5179-0057-1
Book chapters (4)
Tymkiw, L., (2020). The Mass Production of Factory Exhibitions in National Socialist Germany. In: Unmastered Past? Modernism in Nazi Germany Art, Art Trade, Curatorial Practice. Verbrecher Verlag. 212- 229. 395732453X. 9783957324535
Tymkiw, M., (2016). Engaged Spectatorship: On the Relationship between Non-Museum Exhibitions and Museums in National Socialist Germany. In: Museen im Nationalsozialismus: Akteure - Orte - Politik. Editors: Baensch, T., Kratz-Kessemeier, K. and Wimmer, D., . Böhlau. 161- 176. 978-3412224080
Tymkiw, M., (2015). Den Körper spielerisch erkunden. Die Ausstellung 'Wunder des Lebens' in Berlin 1935 und ihr Nachleben. In: "Erkenne Dich selbst!" Strategien der Sichtbarmachung des Körpers im 20. Jahrhundert. Editors: Nikolow, S., . Böhlau. 320- 342. 978-3-412-22380-9
Tymkiw, M., (2007). Pictorially Transcribing Music: The Wagner Lithographs of Henri Fantin-Latour and Odilon Redon. In: Looking and Listening in Nineteenth-Century France. Editors: Ward, M. and Leonard, A., . University of Chicago Press. 50- 59. 9780935573442
Contact
Academic support hours:
Tues 15–16h, other times by appointment (please email)
