About

Concept

The EVA project brings together more than 200 art and heritage historians representing the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. It is directed by an editorial board composed of 6 internationally renowned European specialists and is supported by the international association of Research Institutes in the History of Art (RIHA). Its scientific and operational coordination is provided by the Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA) in Paris.

This digital publication is the result of an unprecedented collaborative effort involving more than 50 museums, university departments and art history research institutes across Europe. It revolves around a richly illustrated and documented collection of 475 objects and images selected in consultation with all of its European partners.

For the first time, this project enables the writing of a polyphonic, multilingual, inclusive and transnational history of the visual arts of continental Europe, from prehistory to the present day.

Principles

The fundamental principles guiding the EVA project stem from a number of observations that call for art history to adopt a strong disciplinary stance and require teamwork on an international scale.

Among these concerns, shared by many of the EVA project’s collaborators:

- The lack of a historical publication devoted to art in Europe that is in step with recent methodological developments in the discipline and aware of the existence of alternative paradigms enabling the reformulation of long-term artistic narratives.

- The growing success of identity-based and nationalist discourses in European countries.

- The need to protect the arts, their images and artefacts from being appropriated by advertising discourse, market forces and exploitation of any kind.

- The need for the humanities – and art history in particular – to continue improving ways of disseminating academic knowledge to as wide an audience as possible.

Selection Process for the 475 objects

The initial task for each of the 46 participating countries was to propose a list of 20 objects meeting the criteria set out below:

- 4 objects linked to the country making the proposal and held within its territory

- 8 objects from other European countries, unrelated to the country making the proposal

- 8 objects chosen freely, related to the country making the proposal or, more generally, to continental Europe

The final selection of the 475 objects was made from the 830 proposals submitted to the editorial board by all the European delegations, which had the opportunity to advocate for specific objects on a case-by-case basis, before these were put to a vote at a general assembly held in Stockholm in October 2024.

Within the framework of the project, the visual arts are considered in a broad and multidisciplinary sense, encompassing not only the fine arts, but also any object (or form) created by human societies to represent and/or interpret reality.

The resulting digital publication covers the entire chronological span from prehistory to the present day and is not limited to conventional periodization, which often involve local variations that cannot be ignored.

This digital publication presents a significant number of ‘masterpieces’, whilst also making room for objects less familiar to the general public. It also includes objects of non-European origin, provided they are preserved or located in Europe.

The EVA project places the materiality of objects at the center of the intellectual and editorial process underpinning the creation of this digital publication: they form its core and the raw material from which the online articles have been written.

Support from RIHA

Founded in Paris in 1998, the International Association of Art History Research Institutes (RIHA) seeks to promote teaching and research in art history, to strengthen cooperation between research institutes, to facilitate the exchange of academic information, and to encourage joint projects.

It was within this framework that the EVA project was developed, during two general assemblies of the association, held successively in Moscow (October 2019) and via videoconference (October 2020).

The project’s approach is fully in line with RIHA’s objectives. It aims to create a new form of collaboration not only amongst its members, but also with institutions that are not currently represented within this international network.

Editorial Board Members

Éric de Chassey
General Director École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (ENSBA), Paris, France
Anne-Solène Rolland
General Director Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), Paris, France
Joana Cunha Leal
Full Professor for graduate and post-graduate courses on 19th and early 20th centuries Instituto de História da Arte, Lisbon, Portugal
Klara Kemp-Welch
Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History/Head of Research Degrees 2025-2028 The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, United Kingdom
Taťána Petrasová
Deputy Director Institute of Art History CAS, Prague, Czech Republic
Martin Olin
Director of Collections Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

Scientific and Editorial Coordinators

Zef Paci
Curator, Artist, Researcher, Professor of Art History and Photography University of Arts, Tirana, Albania
Luçjan Bedeni
Director Marubi National Museum of Photography, Shkodër, Albania
Levon Chookaszian
Professor Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
Doris Gruber
Principal Researcher, Head of Research Unit Art History Research Unit Art History, Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Richard Kurdiovsky
Research Associate Research Unit Art History, Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Isabelle Lecocq
Art History Research and Inventory Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, KIK-IRPEA, Brussels, Belgium
Dubravka Pozderac Lejlić
Associate Professor Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Anja Bogojević
Art Historian, Curator, Senior Teaching Assistant Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Margarita Kuyumdzhieva
Associate Professor Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Joanna Spassova-Dikova
https://artstudies.bg/?tshowcase=joana-spassova-dikova&lang=en Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Katarina Horvat-Levaj
Senior Research Adviser in tenure, Director Institute of Art History, Zagreb, Croatia
Ana Ćurić
Head of Project Management and Publishing Department Institute of Art History, Zagreb, Croatia
Anna Schram Vejlby
Director Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Toreby L., Denmark
Virve Sarapik
Professor Institute of Art History and Visual Culture (KVI), Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Tallinn, Estonia
Kristina Jõekalda
Senior Researcher, Associate Professor at the Doctoral School Institute of Art History and Visual Culture (KVI), Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Tallinn, Estonia
Marie-Sofie Lundström
Professor Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
Marion Boudon-Machuel
Head of the Studies and Research Department Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), Paris, France
Margot Sanitas
International Cooperation Officer Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), Paris, France
Tamar Belashvili
Senior Researcher, Associate Professor Department of Contemporary Georgian Art, G. Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation, Tbilisi, Georgia
Vassiliki Tzanakou
Curator, Art Historian, Cultural strategist Athens, Greece
Monika Perenyei
Senior Researcher, Head of the Reseach Centre for the for Humanities ELTE RCH Institute for Art History, Budapest, Hungary
Gábor György Papp
Senior Researcher ELTE RCH Institute for Art History, Budapest, Hungary
Hlynur Helgason
Associate Professor Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Full Professor School of Art History and Cultural Policy, University College Dublin, Ireland
Timothy Stott
Head of Department, Associate Professor in Modern and Contemporary Art History Department of History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Elisabetta Scungio
Director Regional Directorate for National Museums in Lazio, Ministry of Culture, Rome, Italy
Kristiāna Ābele
Director, Senior Researcher, Guest Lecturer AAL Institute of Art History, Riga, Latvia
Stella Pelše
Guest Lecturer, Senior Researcher AAL Institute of Art History, Riga, Latvia
Giedrė Jankevičiūtė
Art Historian, Curator Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania
Andrea Binsfeld
Associate Professor Institute of History, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Mark Sagona
Senior Lecturer Faculty of Arts, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Christian Attard
Senior Lecturer Faculty of Arts, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Tudor Stavila
Researcher Institute for Cultural Heritage, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
Svetlana Racanovic
Art Historian, Curator, Critic, Professor Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Montenegro, Cetinje, Montenegro
Lazar Pejovic
Professor of Photography Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Montenegro, Cetinje, Montenegro
Sabine Craft-Giepmans
Head of Special Collections Leiden University Libraries, Leiden, the Netherlands
Daniela Nikolova
Art Historian, Curator, Advisor National Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Independence, Skopje, North Macedonia
Suzana Milevska
Independant Art Historian, Curator Skopje, North Macedonia
Knut Ljøgodt
Art Historian, Founding Director Nordic Institute of Art, Oslo, Norway
Nora Aaslaug Høegh
Research Assistant Nordic Institute of Art, Oslo, Norway
Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik
Director International Cultural Centre (ICC), Krakow, Poland
Magdalena Łanuszka
Art Historian International Cultural Centre (ICC), Krakow, Poland
Dorota Piramidowicz
Deputy Director Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Anna Oleńska
Art Historian, Professor Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland
Adrian Silvan Ionescu
Director "George Oprescu" Institute for Art History, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Souria Sadekova
Curator Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Andrei Vorobiev
Independant Researcher France
Miško Šuvaković
Professor Emeritus Faculty of Media and Communication, University of Singidunum, Belgrade, Serbia
Barbara Hodasova
Senior Research Fellow Art Research Centre of SAS, Institute of Art History, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
Mija Oter Gorenčič
Associate Professor, Head ZRC SAZU France Stele Institute of Art History, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Anja Iskra
Researcher ZRC SAZU France Stele Institute of Art History, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Roger Fayet
Director Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA), Zurich,Switzerland
Serpil Bağcı
Professor Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
Nazar Kozak
Senior Researcher Department of Art History, Ethnology Institute, National Academy of Sciences, Lviv, Ukraine