N.S. Reid (Nina)

My PhD research focuses on the European spread of the graphic arts during the turn of the 20th century. The fin-de-siècle was characterised by the remarkably rapid development of modern artistic styles, themes and ideologies, and their spread across national borders. Reproducible, affordable and easily distributed, the graphic arts lent themselves exceptionally well to a broad dissemination of innovative artistic and social ideals that engaged with the quickly developing condition of modernity. Avant-garde prints were actively disseminated throughout Europe, and at the same time also engaged with culture and cultural production beyond the continent: Japanese prints, non-Western (then-called “primitive”) art, and non- Western philosophies that suggested the promotion of new and radical political views, to name but a few of these exchanges. However, print culture’s crucial role in facilitating these exchanges has hardly been researched.