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Naomi

Stewart

Art Historian | Researcher | Writer 
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About Me

About Me

I am an art historian specialising in modern art and photography, with a particular emphasis on the interwar European avant-gardes. My research within those contexts focuses primarily on women artists; the history and theory of photography; and surrealism and its legacies. I also have a continuing interest in contemporary Scottish photography and, between 2020 and 2022, served on the Scottish Society for the History of Photography's Committee.

 

I received my doctorate in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh in October 2019. My thesis - generously funded by a Wolfson Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship - focuses on the photographic works of Dora Maar and their dialogic relationship with surrealism. Entitled 'Le cadre déborde: framing Dora Maar's photographic works in dialogue with surrealism,' the thesis provides a theory-driven analysis of Maar's photographs, working against the biographical approach that has characterised writing on her life and art to date. In doing so, it seeks to expand the framework(s) within which those works are considered in dialogue with surrealism.

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Prior to arriving in Edinburgh, I studied for five years at the University of St Andrews – first, for an MA (Hons) in Art History and Classical Studies, and then an MLitt in History of Photography. My MA and MLitt dissertations discussed, respectively, the theme of desire in the works of Czech surrealist Toyen, and the relationship between studio and experimental portraiture by female photographers in the interwar period.

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