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Afonso Dias Ramos
I graduated from the New University of Lisbon (UNL-FCSH) with a BA in Art History, and was an Erasmus student at Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). After working at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Modern Art Centre in Lisbon, I obtained an MA in History of Art from UCL.
My MA thesis on South African photographer Jo Ractliffe's works in Angola was awarded the Oxford Art Journal prize for best Postgraduate Thesis in 2012.
The focus of my doctoral research, supervised by Professor Tamar Garb, is the relationship between political violence and photography in contemporary art, particularly within the transnational context surrounding the liberation and the civil conflict in Angola (1961-2002). My research explores and confronts the photographic-based artistic legacy of those wars in countries like Angola, Cuba, Portugal, South Africa, or the US.
Thesis
Imageless in Angola: Living through the aftermath of war. Reinventing the photographic medium in a transnational age
Research Interests
Contemporary Art; Photography Theory; Visual Studies; Colonial History;
Publications
Author
'Kongo Reframed', Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 40, Issue 3, 1 December 2017, pp. 491-495.
'Photography and Propaganda in the Fall of the Portuguese Empire: Volkmar Wentzel's Assignments for National Geographic Magazine', José L. Garcia, Chandrika Kaul, Filipa Subtil, Alexandra Santos (ed), Media and Portuguese Empire, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 253-274.
'How to Disappear Completely - The Struggle for Angola', LOBBY, London: The Bartlett School of Architecture, No. 6, 2017, pp. 114-116.
"'Rarely penetrated by camera or film' - Revisiting the first documentary on the Portuguese Colonial War, NBC's Angola: Journey to War (1961)", Maria do Carmo Piçarra and Teresa Castro (eds.), Liberation Struggles, London: Peter Lang, 2017.
'Review of the EY Exhibition: Wifredo Lam at Tate Modern', CubaCounterpoints, December Issue, 2016.
'Imageless in Angola: Appropriating Photography', Object 17: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, 2015, pp. 77-99.
'Angola 1961, o horror das imagens', Filipa Lowndes Vicente (ed.), O Império da Visão: Fotografia no Contexto Colonial português (1860-1960), Coimbra: Edições 70 / Almedina, 2014, pp. 397-432.
'We're half awake in a fake empire', Catarina Simão (ed.), 17 Introductions For The Mozambique Institute [Really Useful Knowledge exhibition, Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid], Lisbon: C. Simão, 2014, pp. 93-131.
'Cronologia de Textos', Prontuário do Riso, Lisboa: Tinta da China / Fundação EDP, 2014, pp. 367-382.
'Amadeo de Souza Cardoso - Gustave Flaubert, La Légende de Saint Julien L'Hospitalier', FCGulbenkian Newsletter, no. 146, September 2013, p. 38.
Thirty eight biographies of British artists, Ainsi font les rêveurs - As Dreamers Do, Paris: Centre culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, 2010, pp. 136-173.
'A brief history of the Portuguese Section of AICA (1954-2011)', Secção Portuguesa da AICA: história, Lisboa: AICA, 2011, pp. 43-80.
'Review of Vítor Silva, Henrique Pousão - Infância, Experiência e História do Desenho', Revista de História da Arte, n. 9, Lisboa: Instituto de História da Arte, 2012, pp. 297-301.
'José Rodrigues e O Cego Rabequista', Revista de História da Arte, n. 8, Lisboa: Instituto de História da Arte, 2011, pp. 276-285.
Co-interviewer of James Elkins with Joana Cunha Leal and Mariana Pinto dos Santos, Revista de História da Arte, n. 8, Lisboa: Instituto de História da Arte, 2011, pp. 9-23.
António Carneiro - Colecção de Pintores Portugueses, vol. 7, Lisboa: Quidnovi / Instituto de História da Arte, 2010.
Entries on artworks by António Areal, Ian Hamilton Finlay, David Hockney, Canto da Maia and Cândido Portinari, 100 Obras da Colecção do CAM da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian / One Hundred Works from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Modern Art Centre, Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2010.
'Interview with Julian Bell', Obscena - Revista de Artes Performativas, Lisboa, n. 22, Fevereiro 2010, pp. 50-57.
Editor
Co-editor with Moran Sheleg, Object 18: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, 2016.
Jorge Molder, Rei Capitão Soldado Ladrão / Jorge Molder: rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, Lisboa: Documenta, 2013.
Secção Portuguesa da AICA: História / Portuguese Section of the AICA: history, Lisboa: AICA, Portuguese Ministry of Culture, 2010.
Secção Portuguesa da AICA: Artes visuais/ Portuguese Section of the AICA: Visual arts, Lisboa: AICA, Portuguese Ministry of Culture, 2010.
Secção Portuguesa da AICA: Arquitectura / Portuguese Section of the AICA: Architecture, Lisboa: AICA, Portuguese Ministry of Culture, 2010.
Co-editor of Cem Obras da Colecção do CAM da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation / Edições Almedina, 2010.
Co-editor of One Hundred Works from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Modern Art Centre, Lisboa: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation / Edições Almedina, 2010.
Conference Papers
'Imagens em Conflito: Política, Memória, Império', Fotografia: Arquivo, Teoria, História, Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon (ICS-UL), Lisbon, Portugal, 20 September 2017.
'Picking a War with Photography: Angola, 1961' in Decolonising History: Visualisations of Conflict in a 'Post-War' Europe, UCL, 18 March 2017.
'Screening Angola's History: Reinventing Photography at a Transnational Age', New Directions in Lusophone African Studies, Saint Peter's College, Oxford University, November 26, 2016.
'Staring at a Blank Screen: Photography and Political Violence in Angola' in Visual Gateways at Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa, 22 October 2016.
Discussant for Daniel Magaziner's paper 'Four Campuses, Four Protests: South Africa and the United States, then and now', African Studies Centre, Oxford University; Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, London, UK, 10 June 2016.
Panelist in 'Disseminating research', ReSkin, Goldsmiths College, London, UK, 30 April 2016.
'Back to the Future: Kiluanji Kia Henda's Icarus 13 (2008) and Stan Douglas's Disco Angola (2012)' in Redefining the Past, Imagining the Future, AfNet Research Africa Day 2016, SOAS, London, UK, 25 May 2016.
'On the Kinaxixi Square in Luanda, Angola', in Global Urbanisms, Regional Specificities, Institute of Advanced Studies - UCL Urban Laboratory, UCL, London, UK, 17 May 2016.
''Rarely penetrated by camera or film': revisiting the first documentary on the Portuguese Colonial War, NBC's Angola: A Journey to War (1961)' in Liberation struggles, the 'falling of the empire' and the birth [through images] of African nations at King's College, London, UK, 28 January 2016.
'Imagining struggles between Luanda and New York: on Stan Douglas' project Disco Angola' in Entangled Histories and Legacies of Empire in Southern Africa at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), Wits University / Institut Français d'Afrique du Sud, Johannesburg, South Africa, 6 November 2015.
'Imageless in Angola: Photography in the Aftermath of War,' Postgraduate Seminar, UCL, 19 June 2014.
'Angola, 1961: o horror das imagens', O Império da Visão: Fotografia no Contexto Colonial Português (1860-1960) at Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon (ICS-UL), Lisbon, Portugal, 28 September 2013.
Teaching Summary
2016 Course Tutor: HART1603 19th and 20th Century Art in London, UCL (Autumn Term)
2015 UCL Arena One Teaching Associate Programme
2015 Course Tutor: HART1603 19th and 20th Century Art in London, UCL (Autumn Term)
2014 Course Tutor: HART1603 19th and 20th Century Art in London, UCL (Autumn Term)
2013 TA for Dr. Alison Wright: HART1306 Foundation Course (History of European Art: Classical to Early Renaissance) (Autumn Term)