Centre for Modern Art & Theory

The aim of the Centre for Modern Art & Theory is to promote research and teaching in the fields of modern and contemporary art, visual culture, aesthetics, design, and art criticism. It is composed of academic staff and students at various stages of their scholarly careers. Members of the centre develop and articulate original research, critically engage with current scholarly knowledge, and support junior colleagues in their career development.

News

September 2026

DHS Annual Conference 2026 in Brno!

We are delighted to announce that in 2026, Brno will host the Design History Society Annual Conference. Titled Design in an Age of Uncertainty, the event will explore the urgent issues that shape not only the present of design history, but also its pasts and possible futures. From the 3rd to the 5th of September, the Department of Art History will host an event dedicated to exchange of ideas about design history, theory, criticism and practice and will bring together the best and up-to-date research in the field from established as well as emerging scholars!

19 Dec

CFP – Agents of Change: Folk Cultures in the Long 20th Century

We’re delighted to share that our colleagues – Valéria Bláha, Marta Filipová, and Julia Secklehner – are organising a workshop titled Agents of Change: Folk Cultures in the Long 20th Century, taking place on the 18th and the 19th of June 2026 at Masaryk University in Brno. The workshop is part of their research project Beyond the Village: Folk Cultures as Agents of Modernity, 1918–1945, funded by the Czech Academy of Sciences.

2025

Modernism’s Future Pasts: Abstraction and Identity in "East-Central Europe," 1910–1930s

The Centre is pleased to announce that is a part of a consortium of institutions, led by the University of Tübingen, that has recently been awarded funding by the Getty Trust’s Connecting Art Histories initiative, for a project examining abstraction and identity in the art of east-central Europe between 1910 and 1939.

All News

Events

SMArt Talks: Embodied Modernism: Experiential Living in an Experimental House

We are delighted to invite you to the next SMArt Talks lecture of the autumn semester, which will be delivered by Robin Schuldenfrei, a Tangen Professor in 20th century modernism at The Courtauld (University of London). The lecture will take place on Wednesday, the 12th of November 2025, at the Hans Belting Library at 18:00.

SMArt Talks: Five Photographs for Franz Joseph: The Great Fire of 1879 and the Urban Transformation of Sarajevo

We are delighted to invite you to the second SMArt Talks lecture of the autumn semester, which will be delivered by Aida Murtić, joining Brno as a visiting researcher within the Visiting Research Fellowship program organised by the Centre for Modern Art & Theory. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, the 5th of November 2025, at the Hans Belting Library at 18:00.

CRAACE Project Books Launch!

We are pleased to announce the launch of four new publications written by the members of our centre as a part of the CRAACE project!

All Events