Visual arts scholar receives fellowship to study art practice and disability

Dr Angelo Lo Conte, Assistant Professor of the Academy of Visual Arts, was awarded the RSA-Samuel H. Kress Research Fellowship in Art History from the Renaissance Society of America (RSA). He is the only scholar from outside the United States among the ten fellowship recipients this year.

Dr Lo Conte was delighted to receive the award, and he said that the fellowship provides an excellent opportunity to further his research on art practice and disability, with a specific focus on prelingual deafness. The award will support his archival research in Italy. He will travel to cities including Milan and Naples to study historical documents and examine paintings produced by prelingually deaf artists in the period 1550-1700.

“The project demonstrates that the way in which our modern society understands disability did not fully exist in the past. It recognises the presence of artists with disabilities in the history of art, using their artworks and documents pertaining to their life to describe how through art practice they asserted their own identity, profession and even citizenship,” said Dr Lo Conte.