The legacy of Edgar Wind, first Professor of Art History at the University of Oxford, lives on.

By Rose Aidin MBE, Founder and CEO, Art History Link-Up

On Wednesday 18th June I had the great pleasure of going to St Hilda’s College, the University of Oxford, to award the Oxford History of Art Society’s Edgar Wind Art Writing Prize, supported by Christie’s. Edgar Wind was the first Professor of Art History at the University of Oxford, and the student Art History society was named in his honour. And in all truth I might not have been there at all without him...

This is because Edgar Wind was a great influence on my mother, who was at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, many decades ago. Even today, she still has vivid memories of attending Professor Wind’s lectures on High Renaissance art, on Wednesdays before lunch. The lecture theatre was packed each week, apparently, with standing room only. And despite what must have been very rudimentary visual aids, my mother felt as if she were in Italy with Professor Wind. Clearly Edgar Wind was not only an extraordinary performer, but above all, a brilliant communicator. 

So my mother’s love of art was inspired by Professor Wind, and I was the beneficiary, being taken to museums and galleries before I could walk, where my mother would communicate with his passion and enthusiasm. So perhaps he is the reason why I went on to study Art History and have always been passionate, first as a journalist and a teacher and now as CEO of Art History Link-Up, about communicating what art can show us. And this is why I find myself presenting the Awards of the Edgar Wind Art Writing Prize.

After many years of journalism writing about art for major newspapers, through the hey day of the Saatchi and Tate Modern years, I went into teaching. I taught modern and contemporary British art at a state secondary school before teaching History of Art A Level at Camden School for Girls, one of the very few state schools in the country where that subject is even an option. In fact fewer than 1% of state schools currently offer History of Art A Level. 

Keen to address this inequality and offer Art History to everyone, I founded Art History Link-Up (AHLU) in 2016. We offer free accredited Art History A Level and EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) courses to state students. And, more recently, we also offer Art History GCSE level qualifications, HPQ courses, for 13- 15 year olds. AHLU has now taught over 600 students from over 350 state schools across the UK, several of whom have been or are involved with the Edgar Wind Society. 

The Society’s focus is on communication about art, most appropriately, and the entries were excellent, with such original and interesting perspectives, any of the seven finalists could have won. Christie’s, who support the prize, are also a generous and long-standing partner of Art History Link-Up. Christie’s provided the prizes for the two winners. The first prize was a week-long internship at Christie’s, the second, a £250 cash prize, with Christie’s branded keep cups for each finalist.

Despite the challenges, I found a winner and runner up. I was delighted to award the second prize to Isobel Brewer for “The Jilted Painter (and Hogarth’s Other Troubled Artists)” and the first prize to Naomi Armstrong for “The Hours of Anne of Bohemia’: Forgery of Collaboration [MS. Lat. liturg. f. 3]: Forgery or Collaboration?” Isobel’s writing was engaging and irreverent and very much in the spirit of Hogarth himself with the writing mimicking the art in a very original and accomplished essay. Naomi’s style was more academic and extremely well-researched, providing an admirably scholarly tone and a meditation on prayer and the meaning of a work of art before concluding with important thoughts about forgery and originality, and the expository tools of the art historian. 

It was a great honour to be part of this event and judge the entries and to celebrate the legacy of Edgar Wind together. The Society produced a very handsome publication of all the entries, which is available for purchase. The Prize Director, Yuesahi Yang, writes in the foreword, ‘We all come to love and engage in writing and researching art history from all walks of life and experiences’, and the Society’s President, Divya Kaliappan, ‘I hope this book will not just celebrate the entries but also serve as a lasting contribution to the discourse of making art history accessible and constantly renewable.’  All sentiments with which we at Art History Link-Up, and also we like to think, Professor Wind, would heartily agree.