Dr Helen Pierce

Biography

PhD, History of Art, University of York

MA, History of Art, University of York

BA (Hons), English and History of Art, University of York

I arrived at the University of Aberdeen in September 2010 as a Teaching Fellow in History of Art, having previously been employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of York's Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. I was appointed as Lecturer in British Art in June 2012. I've also held research fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC and the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California. 

Research Overview

I carry out research into British art of the early modern period (c.1550-1750), with a major strand of my work focusing on the interplay between printed images, propaganda and polemic across the seventeenth century. My monograph Unseemly Pictures: Graphic Satire and Politics in Early Modern England (Yale University Press) redresses an established art historical bias privileging genres such as elite portraiture over printed media, and challenges the presence of a pervasive 'iconophobia' in post-Reformation English culture.

I've also written on popular prints in Shakespearean England, the use of printed images as propaganda during the Exclusion Crisis of the 1680s, and on English portraiture of the Interregnum period. 

Most recently, I've been investigating the activities of the York Virtuosi, an group of artists, natural philosophers and antiquaries who gathered in York during the late seventeenth century. I am also writing a history of British political caricature, which is under contract with Reaktion Books.

Current Research

I'm currently working on two projects: a history of British political caricature, from the seventeenth-century to the present day (for Reaktion Books) and a study examining the artistic activities and cultural networking of the late seventeenth-century group known as the 'York Virtuosi'. The latter is connected to research I've already published on the amateur artists William Lodge and Francis Place.

(left) Mary Darly, page from A Book of Caricaturas, 1762.

(right) Francis Place, Studies of Waterfowl, c.1700.

Both images © The Trustees of the British Museum, via a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons licence.

Knowledge Exchange

You can read about my work on the sketching tours of Francis Place on the 'Curious Travellers' and British Society for Eighteenth-Century studies websites:

www.curioustravellers.ac.uk/en/francis-place-1647-1728-and-his-early-sketches-of-wales/

www.bsecs.org.uk/criticks-reviews/found-and-lost-francis-place-1647-1728-in-scotland/

I've delivered public lectures on Francis Place for the National Gallery of Ireland, Fairfax House in York, and Hospitalfield, Arbroath. 

In collaboration with colleagues from Museums and Special Collections at the University of Aberdeen, I co-curated the 2024 exhibition "Striking Impressions", which examines how we depict and interpret faces. My research into caricature informed the selection of a number of exhibits, and it was fascinating to work with a range artefacts from around the world depicting distorted and exaggerated faces and bodies.

You can read the press release for "Striking Impressions" here: www.abdn.ac.uk/news/22807/

Funding and Grants

2015                 Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Research Support Grant

2008                 Institute for Historical Research, Scouloudi Historical Award

2007                 Huntington Library, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship

2006                 Folger Shakespeare Library, Short-Term Fellowship

2005                 Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Postdoctoral Fellowship

2000-2003         Arts and Humanities Reseach Board Doctoral Award

Teaching Responsibilities

I teach across a range of undergraduate courses in Art History at the University of Aberdeen, including specialist Honours-level courses in British art c.1500-1800; I co-ordinate HA1004 Introduction to Art History at Level 1, and the Art History dissertation course for our final year undergraduates. 

At postgraduate level, I deliver the course HA552U Scottish Visual History for the online MLitt in Scottish Heritage, and contribute to team-taught courses for Scottish Heritage and the MLitt in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, Student Engagement and Employability Lead

School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, Senior Personal Tutor

Art History Student Engagement and Employability Officer

Art History Social Media Officer

Elected member of the University Senate, 2014-18