Presentation
Comparing artistic practices across time and place, this talk by the co-convenors of the new MA Art and Business at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London focuses on the artist studio as a workshop, salesroom and laboratory.
Tom and Stephanie examine studio practices in the past and the present, and their connection to the art market, especially the value of artworks. Beginning with Dutch and Flemish Workshop practices of the 17th Century, the problematic and dynamic relationship between the studio and the marketplace will be interrogated: what does authenticity mean within a studio practice? When did studio spaces become exhibition and sale venues? In what ways were studios reorganised along industrial lines? And how do artists fare today in times of increasing rent in capital cities? The conversation aims to debunk some myths about individual versus team work and how this affects value.
Additional information
Limited places are available and will be assigned by registration only.
——
Image credits: Constantin Brancusi’s studio, reconstruction by Renzo Piano © Centre Pompidou
Speakers
Dr. Stephanie Dieckvoss is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at The Courtauld, University of London. She previously taught at Central Saint Martins (UAL), Kingston School of Art, IESA (Paris), and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Stephanie’s research focuses on contemporary art markets, particularly collecting practices, art fairs, the intersections of art and commerce and spaces of commerce. Her PhD, Do-It-Yourself: Art and Alternative Art Fairs of the 1990s in Europe and the USA, was completed at Kingston University with the support of a Techne (AHRC) scholarship.
Alongside her academic work, Stephanie is an established writer and journalist specialising in contemporary art and market dynamics. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Apollo, Handelsblatt, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Weltkunst, and Artpress. Before entering academia, Stephanie spent over 15 years in senior positions in commercial galleries and art fairs across Europe and the United States.
Dr Tom Stammers is Reader in Art and Cultural History at the Courtauld Institute, and co-leader of the new MA in Art and Business. His first book, The Purchase of the Past: Cultures of Collecting in Post-Revolutionary Paris, c.1790-1890 (Cambridge, 2020) won the RHS Gladstone Prize for the best first book in European or World history.
He was co-investigator on the major AHRC project ‘Jewish Country Houses: Objects, Networks, People’ (2019-2024), where he led the strand devoted to the history of collecting. With co-editor Silvia Davoli he recently published Jewish Dealers and the Modern European Art Market, 1860-1930: Negotiating Cultural Modernity (Bloomsbury, 2025).
Tom has published widely on French art, the history of collecting, the art market, museums and heritage politics, and contributes regularly to publications including Apollo, The Burlington Magazine and The London Review of Books.
Speakers
Stephanie Dieckvoss
Senior Lecturer in Art History, The Courtauld
Tom Stammers
Reader in Art and Cultural History, The Courtauld