Dr James Fox MA (Cantab), MPhil, PhD

James Fox graduated with starred first-class honours in History of Art from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He subsequently completed an AHRC-funded MPhil in British modernism before spending a year on a Herchel Smith Scholarship to Harvard. He returned to Cambridge in 2006 to pursue doctoral research (also AHRC funded) in art during the First World War. He was appointed Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge in 2009 and at Gonville & Caius the following year. He also spent Michaelmas term 2010 as a visiting scholar at the Yale Centre for British Art.
He is currently preparing two monographs on twentieth-century British art: 'Business Unusual: art in Britain during the First World War' (based on his doctoral dissertation) and 'Art as antidote: British art, 1914-45', which adresses the key issues of escapism, consolation and redemption during the 'age of catastrophe' and organising a conference at CRASSH to mark the centenary of the Official Secrets Act (called: 'Covert Cultures: art and secret state, 1911-1989') in February 2011. Recent publications include: '"Traitor Painters": Artists and espionage in the First World War' (British Art Journal 2009); '"Fiddling While Rome is Burning": perceptions of artists in wartime' (Visual Culture in Britain 2010); and 'The Curse of Narcissus' for the catalogue of the forthcoming Ron Mueck exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
In 2008 James curated the first exhibition of contemporary art at the British Museum for fourteen years ('Statuephilia'), which included works by Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Marc Quinn and Ron Mueck. He also makes art documentaries for the BBC. He is currently working on a three part series for BBC4 on C20th British painting.