Klara Kemp-Welch is a British art historian and academic, specialising in modern and contemporary Eastern European art and the intersections of art and politics. Her work focuses on themes including modern and contemporary art, migration and mobility, international relations, the Cold War, Eastern European art and politics, post-socialism, and European Union dynamics
She served as Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History and was appointed Head of Research Degrees at the Courtauld Institute of Art for the 2025âÂÂ2028 term.
In 2014, her publication Antipolitics in Central European Art is noted as a valued contribution to art history and praised for innovative theoretical approach. Her further publication in 2018, Networking the Bloc, was also well received
Her ongoing research investigates themes of migration, mobility, and border politics in Eastern European contemporary art, under the provisional title Free Movement?
Kemp-Welch earned her PhD in History of Art in 2008, supervised by Professor Briony Fer, following earlier studies at University College London and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
Before rising to her current position at the Courtauld, she previously taught at University College London, Camberwell (University of the Arts London), and the University of York.