Eric Robertson is a British academic, Professor of Modern French Literary and Visual Culture at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

Work

Robertson's research focuses on 20th century French literature, especially poetry, and the visual arts, with particular emphasis on European

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and the avant-gardes. He is the author of ''Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor'' (2006), ''Writing Between the Lines'' (1995), a study of the bilingual novelist and essayist

René Schickele René Schickele (4 August 1883 – 31 January 1940) was a German-French writer, essayist and translator. Schickele's most famous work is the novel trilogy ''Das Erbe am Rhein'' (1925–31): ''Maria Capponi'' (1925), ''Blick auf die Vogesen'' (1 ...

, and various articles and chapters on 20th century French literature, especially poetry, and visual arts. He is also the co-editor of ''Yvan Goll - Claire Goll: Texts and Contexts'' (1997), ''Robert Desnos: Surrealism in the Twenty-First Century'' (2006), ''Dada and Beyond Volume 1: Dada Discourses'' (2011) and ''Dada and Beyond Volume 2: Dada and its Legacies'' (2012). In 2022, Robertson's authored book ''Blaise Cendrars: the Invention of Life'' was published by

Reaktion Books Reaktion Books is an independent book publisher based in Islington, London, England. It was founded in 1985 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to London in 1987. Reaktion originally focused on the fields of art, architecture, and design. In recen ...

. It examines the poems, novels, essays and autobiographical prose of Swiss-born French writer

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars (), was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European ...

(1887-1961) against a turbulent historical background and reassesses his contribution to twentieth-century literature. Further ongoing projects include a study of avant-garde art and virtual technologies. ''Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor'', published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, considers the close connections between the writing, painting and sculpture of Hans

Jean Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (; ; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Ar ...

and reassesses his contribution to major artistic movements of the 20th century. This book was awarded the 2007 R.H. Gapper Book Prize. The award, made annually by the

Society for French Studies The Society for French Studies, or SFS, is the oldest learned association for French Studies in the UK and Ireland. It aims to promote teaching and research in French Studies within higher education. the president is Professor Judith Still. S ...

, is for the best book by a scholar working in Britain or Ireland in French studies. In 2017-18, Robertson co-curated the international touring exhibition ''Arp: the Poetry of Forms'' with independent curator Frances Guy. The exhibition was hosted by the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

from May to September 2017 and by

Turner Contemporary Turner Contemporary is an art gallery in Margate, Kent, England, intended as a contemporary arts space and catalyst for the regeneration of the town. The title commemorates the association of the town with noted landscape painter J. M. W. Turne ...

from October 2017 to January 2018. It was widely reviewed in the press and media, and

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

showcased it in 'The Best Art of Autumn 2017'. In 2017, Robertson was the featured expert appearing in two short films on the writings of Hans Jean Arp and

shown as part of the exhibition Laboratoire d’Europe: Strasbourg 1880-1930 curated by the Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg. From September 2018 to January 2019, the

Nasher Sculpture Center Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dal ...

(Dallas, Texas) hosted the exhibition ''The Nature of Arp'' which travelled to the

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century ...

(Venice, Italy) from April to September 2019. At the opening symposium, Robertson presented the paper "Words Without Borders: Arp's Bilingual Poetry" and took part in the panel discussion. In 2021, Robertson delivered the inaugural Barbara Wright Memorial Lecture at Trinity College Dublin. Robertson wrote the essay for the book ''Joan Miró: Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Stars: Works from 1924 to 1936'', published by Luxembourg + Co and Ridinghouse in 2022. The book accompanied the exhibition held from 7 September to 26 November 2022 to inaugurate the new premises of Luxembourg + Co in the

Fuller Building The Fuller Building is a skyscraper at 57th Street and Madison Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Walker & Gillette, it was erected between 1928 and 1929. The building is named for its original main o ...

, New York City.

Publications

;Authored, co-authored and edited books * ''Blaise Cendrars: the Invention of Life'' (London: Reaktion Books, 2022; ISBN 9781789145205) * ''Joan Miró: Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Stars: Works from 1924 to 1936'' (London: Luxembourg + Co and Ridinghouse, 2022; ISBN 9781909932777) * ''Jean-Michel Basquiat , Xerox''. Co-authored with Dieter Buchhart and Christopher Stackhouse (Berlin and Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 2019; ISBN 978-3-7757-4585-7) * ''Words Without Thoughts Never to Heaven Go''. Co-authored with Dieter Buchhart and Richard Shiff (New York: Almine Rech Gallery Editions, 2018; ISBN 978-2-930573-26-7) * ''Arp: The Poetry of Forms'' (Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum, 2017, co-authored with Frances Guy; ISBN 9789073313439) * ''Schwitters Miró Arp''. Co-authored with Dieter Buchhart, William Jeffett and Gwendolen Webster (Munich, London, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2016; ISBN 9783791355924) * ''Dada and Beyond, vol 2: Dada and its Legacies'', ed. with Elza Adamowicz (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2012; ) * ''Dada and Beyond, vol 1: Dada Discourses'', ed. with Elza Adamowicz (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2011; ) * ''Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor'' (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006; ) * ''Robert Desnos: Surrealism in the Twenty-First Century'', ed. with Marie-Claire Barnet and Nigel Saint (Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Vienna: Peter Lang, 2006; ) * ''Yvan Goll – Claire Goll: Texts and Contexts'', ed. with Robert Vilain (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1997; ) * ''Writing Between the Lines: René Schickele, ‘Citoyen français, deutscher Dichter’ 1883-1940'' (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1995; )

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Eric Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London British literary critics Literary critics of French Living people Year of birth missing (living people)