Richard Noble

Richard Noble is Professor and Head of the Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. A political philosopher by training who has migrated into the art world, he holds significant leadership and academic roles within the institution.

His educational background includes a B.A. in Politics from the University of British Columbia (1980), an M.Sc. in Political Philosophy from the London School of Economics (1982), and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics (1987).

Noble's research focuses on utopian strategies in contemporary art and their connection to philosophical concepts of utopia. He has edited the book Utopias in the MIT/Whitechapel Documents in Contemporary Art series and has written extensively on artists including Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, David Batchelor, Mona Hatoum, and Hannah Collins. Currently, he is working on a monograph about Cristina Iglesias' public art works and an essay on Adrian Villas Rojas. As Head of the Art Department for a decade, he was instrumental in developing the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art.

His scholarly output reveals a consistent engagement with how sculptural forms create spaces for phenomenological interaction and political reflection, particularly examining the body as both form and space within contemporary art practice.

Noble lectures in contemporary art history and criticism while supervising undergraduate and postgraduate work in critical theory on art, politics, and aesthetics, bringing his philosophical background to bear on current artistic practices.