Dr Marko Ilić

Marko Ilić is an art historian whose interests lie in modern and contemporary art of the world, including their social, political and institutional contexts; the histories of multiple modernisms and modernities; global histories of curating and exhibition making; and transnational networks of artistic collaboration and exchange. His first book, A Slow Burning Fire: The Rise of the New Art Practice in Yugoslavia, was published by the MIT Press in 2021. The first comprehensive study of the former Yugoslavia’s alternative art scenes between the 1960s and 1980s, it tells the origin stories of some of the most significant artists of the late twentieth century, and analyses their work in relation to the processes that steered the country’s disintegration in the 1990s. In addition to the monograph, Marko’s writing has been printed in journals including Third Text and ArtMargins, and in edited volumes and museums catalogues. He is currently researching his second book. 

Marko was awarded his undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge and completed his MA and PhD at The Courtauld Institute of Art. Prior to joining the Department in 2023, he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at University College London and held lecturing positions at The Courtauld, Newcastle University, and the Universities of Cambridge and York.