COMPETITION

Modern Classicisms seeks to engage, motivate and inspire – and across traditional disciplinary parameters. With this in mind, the project has run a competition, open to all students and staff at King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Working with the Cultural Institute at King’s, we asked students and staff to share their own contemporary takes on the ‘classical’ – whether as something beautiful to celebrate, or something oppressive to interrogate and challenge. We received 25 entries – testimony to the creativity, originality and innovation of our London community. Submissions drew on a range of media, including painting, drawing, film, photography, sculpture, music, textiles, poetry, illustrated story book, collage and computer game. The competition bridged the Courtauld and King’s. But it also brought together undergraduates, postgraduates and staff, and from across King’s: from the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, the King’s Business School, Chaplaincy and the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine.

A panel of judges – consisting of staff from King’s and the Courtauld, as well as two acclaimed artists – had the task of allocating the first, second and third prizes. A selection of entries are displayed in the Bush House Arcade and The Union Shop during The Classical Now. The competition element of Modern Classicisms has been managed by all three student ambassadors on the project, with Belinda Martin Porras and Abigail Walker curating the Bush House Arcade display.

Deciding upon the winners was a hugely difficult task – and we have included images (and in two cases recordings) of all entries in the gallery below. The winners were announced at the private view of The Classical Now on 1 March:

1st prize: Charlotte Ellery (King’s: Department of Classics [Undergraduate]): First Glance. Oil painting.

2nd prize: Rioghnach Sachs (King’s: Department of Comparative Literature): Hymn of Iphis (Lesbian Hymn I). 4-part choral composition, with organ and harpsichord, supplied with recording.

3rd prize (joint): a) Svitlana Biedarieva (Courtauld Institute of Art): Londonomachy. Digital print on HP wallpaper. b) Connie Bloomfield (King’s: Department of Classics): Venus Reconstructed. Sculpture.

Many congratulations not only to the winners, but to everyone who took part in the competition!

To download the flyer accompanying the competition display in Bush House Arcade (March/April 2018), click here.

Judging panel:

  • Katherine Bond (Director, Cultural Institute, King’s College London)
  • Alixe Bovey (Head of Research, Courtauld Institute of Art)
  • Russell Goulbourne (Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King’s College London)
  • Nick Hornby (nickhornby.com)
  • Christodoulous Panayiotou (christodoulospanayiotou.com)
  • Michael Squire (‘Modern Classicisms’ lead, Department of Classics, King’s College London)
  • Evelyn Welch (Provost [Arts & Sciences], King’s College London)

Find out more:

To find out more about the competition, please visit the King’s Cultural Institute website here.
Outside of King’s and the Courtauld, but want to get involved?
Check out enter our sister competition, organised by the University of Leicester and Classical Association: ‘Artefact to Art‘! Modern Classicisms is working in proud partnership with the Artefact to Art project; that project includes a separate competition, and welcomes entries from both adults (over 18 years) and children (under 11 years and 11–18 years) alike.

ENTRIES

Ellen Adams

Classic Broken Bodies
2018
Acrylic on canvas
King’s College London
Department of Classics (staff)

Connie Bloomfield

Venus, Reconstructed
2018
Calligraphy ink on tracing paper, with gold thread
King’s College London,
Department of Classics (postgraduate)

Charlotte Ellery

First Glance
2018
Oil on canvas
King’s College London,
Department of Classics (undergraduate)

Saskia Lloyd Gaiger

Pygmalion in Reverse
2017
Ink and papercut, with embroidery
King’s College London,
Department of Classics (undergraduate)