Natalie Rudd

Natalie Rudd

Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies
Doctoral researcher
Teaching Assistant

Contact details

PhD Title: Lost and Found: Material Precarity in British Sculpture by Women, 1978-1993
Supervisors: Dr Gregory Salter and Professor Michael Hatt (University of Warwick)
PhD History of Art

Qualifications

  • MA: History of Art, King's College, Cambridge, (1994-1997)

Biography

I am a curator, writer and researcher with substantial experience of managing collections, programmes and gallery operations. In my former role as Senior Curator of the Arts Council Collection, I managed the sculpture collection at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2003-21). Prior to this, I held curatorial positions at Tate Liverpool and the University of Manchester.

Teaching

  • September 2022- January 2023: Teaching Associate, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham. Teaching seminars on BA Historical Concepts and Methods in the History of Art.

Research

This PhD project will investigate the contribution made by women to British sculpture between 1978 and 1993. These transformative years witnessed increasing visibility for women at a time of significant sculptural innovation, from the emergence of New British Sculpture to the rise of ‘young British art’. Embracing the work of a diverse range of artists, this inclusive study will move beyond preconceptions of women as emulators, reinstating women as pioneers, driving new approaches to sculpture.

This project will analyse how a generation of women harnessed the potential of malleable materials such as flowers, textiles and biological matter to interrogate issues of precarity and vulnerability. It will investigate a range of destabilising working methods and display strategies from decay, desiccation and destruction to leaning, balancing and dangling. The employment of salvage processes suggests frugality and limited resources but also highlights the creative potential of recovery. The research will include a reappraisal of overlooked artists, whose contributions deserve greater recognition. It will also analyse the relationship between sculptural precarity and art world marginalization experienced by many women working across this period.

Other activities

  • Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee member: 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16
  • Member, Hepworth Research Network at The Hepworth Wakefield
  • Member, Public Statues & Sculpture Association
  • Member, International Council of Museums

Publications

 Books:

  • Contemporary Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 2023).
  • The Self-Portrait (London: Thames & Hudson, 2021).
  • Peter Blake (London: Tate Publishing, 2003).