Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2653
E-Mail:	a.m.novak@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for Cultural Disciplines, KG Moderne beeldende kunst
Office Address:	Johan Huizingagebouw Doelensteeg 16 2311 VL Leiden Room number 2.15b

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Fields of interest

• Modern and contemporary art
• Art theory
• Conceptions of spectatorship
• Theories of performance and performativity
• Intermedial and transdisciplinary practices (both artistic and theoretical)
• Aesthetics, especially Environmental Aesthetics

Research

My fields of interest are modern and contemporary art, art theory and aesthetics. In particular, I am interested in how contemporary art forms, such as installation art and performance, challenge traditional notions of art, aesthetics and spectatorship. Transgressing the borders of traditional artistic media and disciplines, these artistic practices invite art audiences to explore new ways of perceiving and thinking. Often, the 'viewer' is turned into an active participator, who 'performs' the work of art, rather than contemplating it from a detached point of view. An overall aim of my research is to construct theoretical frameworks that allow us to better understand the kind of interactions that these art works provoke. More recently, I have taken a keen interest in the various notions of nature - and of the interactions between human beings and nature - that are articulated in contemporary art. On the one hand, many contemporary artistic representations of nature challenge traditional dichotomies such as natural versus artifical, subject versus object, etc. They trigger us to perceive of and think about nature in different ways. On the other hand, many art works overtly play upon nostalgic and sentimental feelings and ideas about nature. Combining these various stances, contemporary art expresses the extremely complex, highly charged and often ambiguous character of mankind's affiliation with nature. In my future research activities I intend to set up a dialogue between these artistic representations and recent theoretical conceptualizations of nature.

Curriculum vitae

Anja Novak (1970, Heidelberg/FRG) is an art historian, based in Rotterdam. She lectures art history at Leiden University and The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (NL), and has been a guest lecturer at Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Amsterdam. Anja Novak has a background in both the visual and performing arts. She studied art history at Leiden University (1994-1998) and modern dance at Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam (1989-1993). In 2010 she obtained her PhD from Leiden University, with a dissertation on the spectatorhsip produced by contemporary installation art. She is a member of the Dutch Association for Aesthetics (NGE), the Dutch Association of Art Historians (VNK) and the Association of Art Historians (AAH).

Key publications

Engaging Environments. The Work of Robert Smithson and Olafur Eliasson as an Instance of Environmental Aesthetics. Robert Smithson. Art in Continual Movement, ed. Ingrid Commandeur and Trudy van Riesmdijk-Zandee. Amsterdam: Alauda Publishing, forthcoming 2012. 

Rogier Schumacher, Neo-avant-garde in Nederland. Museumjournaal als forum van een nieuw kunstbegrip, 1961-1973 (book review). TS – Tijdschrift voor tijdschriftstudies 29: 54-57, 2011.

Ruimte voor beleving. Installatiekunst en toeschouwerschap (Space for experience. Installation art and spectatorship). PhD dissertation, Leiden University, 2010. Partly accessible at Leiden University Repository.

The Site of Installation Art. Hovering between Inner and Outer Places. Take Place. Photography and Place from Multiple Perspectives, ed. Helen Westgeest, pp. 133-163. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2009.

Innocence Reborn: Child Photography in The Netherlands, 1945-1960. Aldo van Eyck: The Playgrounds and the City, ed. Ingeborg de Roode and Liane Lefaivre, pp. 103-107. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2002. (with Debbie Wilken)

Teaching activities

At Leiden University, I am currently teaching the following courses:

- Representatie (BA Art history, Film and Literary studies)

- Methodological Concepts in Art and Literature (ResMA Studies in Art and Literature)

- Primitivism and beyond: western art and other cultures throughout the ages (MA Art history)

- Thesis supervision (BA and MA)