Arthur Crucq is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He lectures about topics such as art and anthropology, art theory, representation and style, regarding fields as diverse as architecture, ornament, painting, sculpture and textiles. In recent years he published on artists books, community arts, empirical methods in art history, Dutch-East Indies art, subcultures, sustainable architecture, and on the significance of textiles in Gottfried Semper’s style theory.

More information about Arthur Crucq

Fields of interest

• Cognitive, material, and representational aspects of art
• Art as semiosis
• Art, agency, and emotional response
• Cultural heritage in the former Dutch East Indies
• Dutch East Indies/ Indonesian art and art history

Research

From an interest in the emotional response to artworks and the role of both the materiality of the artwork, the aesthetic experience and cognitive processes, I have become increasingly interested in visual art as a system of signs. In my 2018 dissertation I extensively studied the conditions under which abstract ornaments and patterns generate meaning. With regard to processes of meaning-making, I am particularly interested in how the creative body relates to material and technique (design) and how this reveals itself in form within the final concrete graphic sign. In my most recent book, to be published by Brill in 2025, I discuss two important Western European art theories, those of Alberti and Semper, from an interdisciplinary perspective (mainly informed by anthropology, art history and semiotics) and show how, although separated in time, both seem to complement each other and shed light not only on how processes of meaning-making and representation work, but also on the extent to which this is rooted in the relationship between body and technique vice versa. In addition, I conduct research into cultural heritage policy in the former Dutch East Indies and into the role of Indonesian artists within the former colonial relations in the Dutch East Indies. In 2025, my monograph on the Javanese sculptor Iko, will be published by WBOOKS.

CV

2017 - present University Lecturer Leiden University
2017-2018
Fellowship Lab for Cognitive Research in Art History, department of Art History, University of Vienna
2013-2017
PhD Researcher: 'Universal decorative patterns and geometric core knowledge'. This research was part of the subproject ‘Visual Arts and Geometry’ of the NWO-funded ‘Horizon Knowledge and Culture’ research project (Supervisors: Prof dr. C.A. van Eck, Prof dr. J.E.C.V. Rooryck)

Grants and awards

2023 Research grant Dirkse-Bergsma fund Leids Universiteits Fond for the project Hybrid Art in the Former Dutch East Indies.
2022 Research grant from the chair Museums, Collections and Society
2021 Research grant from the chair Museums, Collections and Society
2013 Ted Meijer Price Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome

Teaching Activities 

Freshman's Class/Werkcollege Academische Vaardigheden I: kennismaken met de wetenschappelijke bestudering van kunst (BA kunstgeschiedenis) 

Freshmans’s Class/Academic Skills I seminar: On the Scholarly Study of Art and its History (BA Art History track, Arts, Media & Society) 

Academische Vaardigheden II (Kunstgeschiedenis): Zoeken, schrijven, en presenteren (BA kunstgeschiedenis) 

Academic Skills II (Art History): Searching and Processing Information, Writing, and Oral Presentation (BA Art History track, Arts Media & Society) 

Topical Course: Artist's Writings - three lectures on 20th/ 21st century writings (BA kunstgeschiedenis/Arts Media & Society) 

Seminar Bachelor Eindwerkstuk (Kunstgeschiedenis) 
One seminar in Perspectieven op kunstwetenschappelijk onderzoek en de beroepspraktijk 

Thesis Seminar Arts and Culture (MA Arts and Culture) 

One seminar in Practices and Debates (MA Arts and Culture)