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Silvano Levy
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Name
Silvano Levy
Role
Art critic
Education
University of Reading
Books
The scandalous eye
Silvano Levy is an academic and art critic specialising in surrealism. He has published on Belgian surrealism with studies on René Magritte, E.L.T. Mesens and Paul Nougé. His research on The Surrealist Group in England began with a film on Conroy Maddox and the book Conroy Maddox: Surreal Enigmas (1995), while a wider interest in the movement led to the publication of Surrealism: Surrealist Visuality (1997) and Surrealism (2000). Levy has curated national touring exhibitions of the work of Maddox and Desmond Morris, and has published a monograph on the latter entitled Desmond Morris: 50 Years of Surrealism (1997), which was followed by the enlarged re-edition Desmond Morris: Naked Surrealism (1999). Subsequent books on Morris include Lines of Thought: The Drawings of Desmond Morris (2008) and two volumes (2000 & 2012) of an analytical catalogue raisonné spanning eight decades. Silvano Levy's monograph on Maddox, The Scandalous Eye. The Surrealism of Conroy Maddox, was published by Liverpool University Press in 2003. 2015 saw the publication of Decoding Magritte. Further studies cover Sheila Legge, Toni del Renzio, André Breton, Dina Lenković, Jean-Martin Charcot and Birmingham surrealism. Dr Levy is editor of Surrealist Bulletin and has held academic posts at the University of Liverpool, Newcastle Polytechnic, the University of Bath, the University of Hull and Keele University, where he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in French in 1998 and then to Reader in 2005.
2016 'Magritte the Saboteur', Waterstones, Piccadilly, London
2014 'Surrealism and the Street', Barber Institute, University of Birmingham
2014 'Surrealism', Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
2012 'Biomorphism as Ethology', Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Instituto Universitário, Lisbon
2012 'Lewis Carroll and British Surrealism', Tate Liverpool
2012 'Biomorphism or Skeuomorphism: Surrealist distortion', University of Hull
2011 'Magritte's La Saveur des larmes', Tate Liverpool
2011 'Magritte. Le Refus de l'authentique', Le Centre Interdisciplinaire Récits Cultures Psychanalyse Langues et Sociétés (CIRCPLES) de l'Université de Nice
2010 'Surrealism: the Ultimate Defiance', National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
2010 'Surrealism', National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, Harrogate
2009 'Desmond Morris', University of Cambridge
2009 'Surrealism in Britain', University of Cambridge
2009 'Fleeting Phantom: Sheila Legge', Across the Frontiers. International Surrealism, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge
2009 'What is Surrealism?', Leeds Art Gallery
2009 'Paul Nougé Constructing Absence', French Institute, Edinburgh
2008 'Surrealism: Anger and Revolt', University of Durham
2008 'Desmond Morris. Lines of Thought', Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead
2008 'Reading Magritte's La Saveur des larmes', The Barber Institute, University of Birmingham
2006 'Body Language: Communication and Identity', University of the Arts, Bremen
2005 'Magritte at the Edge of Codes', Conception Reception, Annual Conference, The Association of Art Historians, University of Bristol
2003 'Conroy Maddox', Chelsea Arts Club, London
2003 'Chasing Dreams: Freud and the Surrealists', University of Manchester
2002 'La Lumière de l'inconscient', Université catholique de l'Ouest, Angers
2002 'Surrealism', City Art Gallery, Southampton
2001 'The Surrealism of Maddox and Morris', Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
2001 'Jean-Martin Charcot, a nineteenth-century influence', Le surréalisme appartient-il au XXe siècle?, International Colloquium, St. Hugh's College, Oxford
1998 'Psychoanalysis and the Surrealist Object', Identities, Annual Conference, The Association of Art Historians, University of Exeter
1997 'Surrealism and Desmond Morris', Charleston Literary Festival
1997 'Surrealism: an introduction', Ledbury Poetry Festival
1997 'Desmond Morris and Surrealism', Buxton Museum & Art Gallery
1997 'Edouard Mesens et la persistance du dadaïsme', La Littérature et les arts en Belgique francophone, International colloquium, The Department of French, The University of Edinburgh
1997 'Sex and Surrealism', Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
1996 'René Magritte: The Space in Question', Research Seminar, Keele University
1996 'The Unknown Desmond Morris', City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
1996 'André Breton and the Belgian Connection', André Breton: The Power of Language, International Surrealist Colloquium, University of Glasgow
1995 'Conroy Maddox: The Philosophy of a Surrealist', Leeds City Art Gallery
1994 'Belgian Surrealist Theories of music', University of Reading (with Barbara Kelly)
1993 'Paul Nougé and Surrealist Music', Centre for Research in French Studies, University of Keele (with Barbara Kelly)
1993 Interview with Conroy Maddox, Surrealism: The Scene of the Crime, Eugène Vinaver International Colloquium University of Manchester
1993 'Dangerous Music: Belgian Theories of Musical Surrealism', The Scene of the Crime, Eugène Vinaver International Colloquium, University of Manchester (with Barbara Kelly)
1993 'Belgian Surrealist Theories of Music', University of Liverpool (with Barbara Kelly)
1992 Panellist at Dissecting the exquisite corpse: Surrealism in Words and Images, Symposium, Institute of Romance Studies, University of London
1989 'The Theories of Paul Nougé', North-West, Universities' Seminar in French, University of Liverpool
1988 'Aspects of the Belgian Approach to Surrealism', University of Newcastle upon Tyne
1987 'Art Déco', Newcastle Polytechnic
1987 'Jean Cocteau', Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne
1987 'Surrealism on Film: The Movement and its Philosophy', series of three lectures, Merseyside Film Institute, Liverpool
1985 'The Paris 1920 Style', University of Liverpool
1985 'Jean Cocteau', Merseyside Film Institute, Liverpool
1984 'The Language of Literary Criticism: Structuralism and the Narrative', University College, Dublin
1984 'Dada and Surrealism', Trinity College, Dublin
1984 'Paul Nougé', University of Liverpool
1983 'Belgian Surrealism', National College of Art and Design, Dublin
1983 'Language Loss: A Linguistic Approach', Dublin Dyslexia Association
1983 'The Theory of Abstraction', National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin
1982 'Aphasic Models', University of Kent
1982 'Abstraction, Problems of Interpretation', University of Kent
1982 'René Magritte', Trinity College, Dublin
Media
2007 Live contributor Ronnie Barbour, BBC Three Counties Radio, 9 March 2007, 5.00–6.00 pm.
2007 Contributor Brief Lives, BBC Radio 5 Live, 18 February 2007, 6.00–6.30 am.
2006 Live contributor Breakfast, BBC Radio Stoke, 21 September 2006, 7.45–8.00 am.
2005 Contributor Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 14 January 2005, 7.15–7.45 pm.
2002 Live contributor The Late Show, BBC Radio Nottingham, 30 October 2002, 10.30–11.00 pm.
2002 Contributor Brugse Radio VBRO (Belgium) 106 FM, 25 March-3 April 2002
2002 Live contributor Morning Show, Saga Radio, 1 February 2002, 10.30 am.
2000 Live contributor Night Waves, BBC Radio 3, 8 December 2000, 10.00–10.30 pm.
2000 Contributor Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 4 December 2000, 7.15–7.45 pm.
1996 Contributor Answers Back: Desmond Morris, BBC Radio Scotland
