Tereza Havelková is a Fulbright visiting researcher joining the Department of Art History for the Spring semester 2024. She is working on her dissertation on the creation of myths in art of the World War II period. During her stay at UPenn, she is conducting research in archives and libraries and visiting lectures at the Departement. She is open to collaboration on themes of myth, modern art and religion, art and totalitarian ideologies, Romanticism and avant-garde, etc.
Currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Art History at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), Tereza deals with Czech, German, French and American art, philosophy, literature, politics and theatre. In the USA she is following the steps of European avant-garde coming to the US during the late 1930s and 1940s and the American artists mostly associated with Abstract Expressionism. She is interested in the specific conception of Romantic "New mythology" and its second life in the 20th century and the mutual influences and interactions between the European and American milieu. She will be focusing on André Breton, André Masson, Leonora Carrington, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman among others and also their links to the Living Theatre established in New York and other figures and initiatives.
Her advisor at Penn is Prof. Michael Leja, whose experiences with research in the field of Abstract Expressionism are essential. She is also looking for the possibilities to consult her work with other experts dealing with similar topics, while staying at Penn and occasions for discussions and exchange of views and opinions.
Apart from her research Tereza works as a contemporary art reporter, she co-created podcasts about the Czech art scene, the artists working conditions and the gallery network in Prague and other Czech cities. She worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague connecting the art teachers from high schools and primary schools with the artists teaching at the Academy and facilitated programs for art students interested in teaching. At Charles University she prepared and took part in many interdisciplinary conferences and colloquia and taught a course on myth to international students of various disciplines.