Katrina-Eve Nasidlowski Manica, PhD History of Art and Architecture
Manuscripts in Progress
Embodied Beauty: Imperialism, Settler Colonialism, and Slavery in British Aestheticism, 1857-1900
Embodied Beauty is a rethinking of nineteenth-century British Aestheticism that reveals previously concealed nonwhite, (de)colonial art makers, users, and communities of meaning makers. I am attentive to moments when art makers and users experience (dis)pleasure as acts of self-sovereignty—those who resist imperialism and settler colonialism through ebullience, humour, and/or anger in, and through, material and visual culture.
Embodied Beauty reappraises perceptions of Aestheticism’s tastes and (dis)pleasures for transcultural medievalisms in William Burges’s designs at Cardiff Castle; mechanisms of displaying Indian and British imperial sovereignty in Valentine Prinsep’s Durbar and Orientalist paintings; and Oscar Wilde’s collections and representations of Wilde as racialized during his 1882 US-Canada lecture tour. This project develops novel work on commodity tracing and resource extraction/exploitation as sources for the beautiful that summarized the infamous art movement as ‘art for art’s sake’.
James A Palmer, “An Aesthetic D—ky” from the “Aiken and Vicinity” Series (1882). Albumen silver print from glass negative. 41.6 x 34.3 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art 2017.311. Public Domain.
You can find out more about my work!
My research develops critical ways of thinking about race and imperialism in nineteenth-century British Aestheticism's interiors, paintings, and collections. Additional academic projects include examining Indian nautch dancers and representations of sound and touch at the intersections of race, class, gender, sex, and sexuality.
You can find out more about my academic research interests in the “About” section.
I am sharing snippets of my thoughts on art, history, books, and more here.
About my research and skills
You can find out more about my research and professional skills here
