Nicola Pezolet holds a MA in Art History from Université Laval (2008) and a PhD from the History, Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture program at MIT (2013). His first book project focuses on the interface between modern art and architecture in the post-WW2 Reconstruction context, more specifically on the "synthesis of the arts" debates in France and elsewhere around the world during the middle decades of the twentieth century. He has a special interest in the creation of aesthetic environments and atmospheres, both secular and religious, via polychromy, mural painting, stained glass, and public sculpture. Some of his more recent research is focused on the exchanges between Canadian and European critics interested in the questions of the place of abstract art in public space, as well as on the intersections of modernism and Christian sacred art and architecture, particularly in France and in Canada, in the years leading up to and in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. His new research also deals with cultural policy issues, such as the 1% law for the integration of art to architecture, government funding for the Allied Arts, etc. His most recent essays have appeared in Grey Room, Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, as well as in October.
In welcoming Dr. Pezolet, JI director Martha Langford noted his active participation in Institute events, including his stimulating conversation with Dr. Tania Martin for Afternoons at the Institute, as well as his extensive knowledge of transnational cultural contexts, such as the Cold War, as expressed in the built environment.
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