Space, Place and Migration in Modern Art - Jutta Vinzent gives the Salek Minc Lecture 2015

Space, Place and Migration in Modern Art During the 1930s thousands of refugees left Nazi Germany; many went to Britain, so that London became a haven for modern art. It was also in London that Circle: An International Survey of Constructive Art (1937) was published, a major book with contributions from leading avant-garde artists. Edited by Naum Gabo, Ben Nicholson and Leslie Martin, the publication dealt foremost with the topic of space, namely in sculpture, painting, architecture and also in design. This paper will consider conceptions of space in the 1930s and asks how such interest was reflective of migrants’ experiences of changing places and expanding spaces. It will argue that space, different from other Formalist aspects, was a feature relevant beyond a mere Formalist analysis that may stretch to the formulation of a Spatial Art History.