Tamar Garb

Tamar Garb holds the prestigious Durning-Lawrence Chair of History of Art at University College London, where she has been a faculty member since 1989. She was promoted to Reader in 1995 and to Professor in 2001, and served as Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies from 2014 to 2019. Educated at the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town), Institute of Education (University of London), and Courtauld Institute of Art, she earned her PhD in 1991 while working part-time in secondary education.

Her academic background includes a BA (Art) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town (1978), an MA in Art Education from the Institute of Education, University of London (1980), an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art (1982), and a PhD from the Courtauld Institute (1991).

Professor Garb's research spans gender and sexuality in Modern and Contemporary Art, African photography, women artists, and feminist aesthetics, with particular focus on nineteenth century French art and post-apartheid South African visual culture. Her influential publications include Sisters of the Brush: Women's Artistic Culture in Late Nineteenth Century Paris (1994), Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin de Siecle France (1998), and The Painted Face, Portraits of Women in France 1814-1914 (2007). Her curatorial practice is equally significant, featuring major exhibitions including 'Gauguin: Maker of Myth' (Tate, 2011), 'Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography' (V&A, 2011), 'Distance & Desire: Encounters with the African Archive' (Walther Collection, 2014), and 'Beyond the Binary: Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt' (2023).

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2018-2024) reveals continued scholarly engagement with African art and photography, feminist theory, and postcolonial critique, demonstrating how her foundational work on gender in 19th century art has evolved to address contemporary issues of race, migration, and archival politics in visual culture.

• Lucie Award nomination in Curating for 'Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography' (2011)

Professor Garb actively supervises PhD students working on nineteenth century French art, contemporary African art, and gender studies, including Akin Oladimeji, Darya Aloufy, Kalvin Schmidt-Rimpler Dinh, and Renée Mussai. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses including 'Art and Society in France' and 'South African Photography: From Colonialism to the Contemporary.' Her institutional service includes participation in UCL's Academic Board Working Group on Racism and Prejudice (2020). Her office is located at 205, 21 Gordon Square with office hours on Wednesdays 9:30-10:30am and Thursdays 12:00-1:00pm.