Diana Newall is currently Facilitator on the three-year Leverhulme International Network project to study the representations of Hell in Churches on Venetian-Dominated Crete from the 13th to 17th Century. She joined the Open University as the Konstantinos Leventis Research Fellow in Post-Byzantine Art in October 2008. Her research project focuses on Renaissance Crete and the rise of the icon in the late fifteenth century, after the fall of the Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Of particular interest is the development of hybrid icon forms which were in great demand across Western Europe in the late fifteenth century. In association with this project, she is working with Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou on a workshop and publication related to cross-cultural interactions between Byzantine and western societies in the Palaiologan and Renaissance Mediterranean.
Diana’s PhD thesis explored the cultural and artistic developments on Crete following the establishment of the Venetian colony on the island in the early thirteenth century to the rise of the icon painter Angelos Akotantos in the early fifteenth century. The research demonstrated increasing cultural and artistic interactions through the period between the two island communities – Orthodox Cretans (formerly of the Byzantine Empire) and the Latin Venetian colonists. Cultural interactions were particularly notable in the island’s capital Candia where Latin and Orthodox residents lived side-by-side. The thesis also analysed the artistic, cultural and economic implications of the extensive number of decorated Orthodox churches built in rural areas through the fourteenth century. The thesis set out Crete’s cultural and artistic circumstances as its economic and cultural role in the Mediterranean developed and its unique cross-cultural society moved from resistance and rebellion to cooperation and interaction.
Since completing her thesis, Diana has broadened her interests to include research into postcolonial studies in relation to contemporary art and art history. In particular, she is researching implications of hybridity and syncretism within art practice and its repercussions for cultural identity and power relationships across cultural boundaries.
On-going projects include contracts for two co-authored books with Routledge entitled Contemporary Art and Globalisation (2011) and Fifty Key Texts in Art History (2012). The former will explore the impact of Globalisation and Postcolonialism on contemporary art practice and art history. The later is an edited anthology of commentaries on key texts in art history reflecting recent developments and perspectives in the discipline.
Art History: The Basics (Routledge, 2007). A co-authored art history primer explaining current theories and approaches for the undergraduate and general reader. It includes chapters on the development of art theories, modernism and Marxist theories, with introductions to psychoanalytic theory, gender studies, semiotics, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism and Globalisation.
Appreciating Art (A&C Black, 2008). A general introduction to Western European painting from 1400 to the present day designed as a companion for the gallery visitor.
‘Church Patronage in Fourteenth Century Candia’ in Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies London, 21–26 August 2006 Vol III (Aldershot, 2006).
‘Interactions in Crete in the Fourteenth Century’ in 10th International Cretological Congress Khania 1–8 October 2006 (Khania, 2006).
Teach&Learn educational website and ezine (Open University, 2003–2006). Co-curriculum adviser and authoring consultant on the educational website targeting the Secondary sector. Authored e-module on ‘Art and Cultural Significance’, and co-authored e-modules on ‘Looking at Paintings’, ‘Art in Context’, ‘Engaging Students’, ‘Why Teach Art and Design?’, ‘Cross Curricular Issues’ and ‘Contemporary Art Practice’.
Diana was jointly awarded the University of Kent, Faculty of Humanities Teaching Prize for 2008-9 for her co-authored book Art History: The Basics and associated teaching initiatives.
