Art History Residency talk | Brook No Opposition: Women in Irish Modernism

Victoria Horne discusses her research into the art of Mainie Jellett, which she conducted during her AAH Art History residency.

During my AAH Residency in winter 2026-27, I began a project exploring the artist Mainie Jellett and her contemporaries who consolidated the place of modern art and design in Ireland. For as Anne Crookshank observed, ‘it was the women, not the mainly conservative male artists of the twenties and thirties, who brought Ireland into the 20th century’. I’m continuing to grapple with how and why we might want to revisit this story today and what narrative shape it could usefully take, so in this lecture I intend to present a series of notes on Jellett’s history and possible directions the research could travel in.

Victoria Horne is an Associate Professor in Arts at Northumbria University in Newcastle. 

AAH Art History Residency

Our residency offers an art historian the opportunity for dedicated time to develop their research at Wigwell Lodge in the Derbyshire countryside. Made possible through the generous support of The Ampersand Foundation, the residency provides space for sustained research and scholarly development.  

Wednesday, 9 December 2026 17:00 – 19:00

Free, hybrid event

In person: 5pm-6pm, followed by wine and refreshments; Room 413, Sandyford Building, 2 Sandyford Rd, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8QH, UK

Online: 5pm-6pm