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Jennifer Ashby

@jenniferashby.bsky.social

Modernist & avant-garde visionary aesthetics | Writing PhD on Mina Loy & spirituality @eui-history.bsky.social Florence, Italy | Organiser Mapping Mina Loy Studies I Past PG Rep @modernistudies.bsky.social

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Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 2w ago

Delighted to share that my article on Mina Loy's conversion to Christian Science in Florence around 1909 has been published in Feminist Modernist Studies! Thanks to @euilibrary.bsky.social, the article is Open Access so is free to read & download (see below): doi.org/10.1080/2469...

The making of Mina Loy’s Christian Science in Florence, Italy

The poet and painter Mina Loy (1882–1966) maintained a life-long, idiosyncratic belief in Christian Science. However, little is known of her formative introduction to the faith in Florence, Italy, ...

doi.org

Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · last wk.

Local students & a sculptor in Livorno conducted an elaborate prank in 1984 by planting fake Modigliani sculptures in the Fosso Reale for authorities to find when investigating the local legend that he threw works in the canal. Deemed authentic before they came forward - a media sensation ensued.

One of the fake Modigliani sculptures discovered I the Fosse Reale Canale in Livorno in 1984. Now on display in the Museo della Città di Livorno. Amedeo Modigliani MODIGLIANI'S FAKE HEADSA long-standing and evocative tale has always hovered over the city of Livorno: according to local legend, Amedeo Modigliani, known for his complex and fiery temper, in a tumultuous summer night, after spending time drinking at the Caffè Bardi (a popular gathering place for the local art scene, placed in the modern Piazza Cavour), overcome with disappointment and the lack of success in his art, decided to throw some of his sculptures into the near canal. These sculptures, said to be stone "heads" sculpted in his unmistakable "art nègre" style, were believed to be lost forever.In 1984, to mark the centenary of Modigliani's birth, the city organized a great exhibition at the Museo Progressivo di Villa Maria. As part of the initiative, the organizers decided to dredge the Fosso Reale canal in an attempt to debunk the myth and possibly recover lost works of the city's most renowned child.To everyone's astonishment, three stone heads were actually found; just as critics and media rushed to hail them as early masterpieces by Amedeo Modigliani. Renowned art historians and critics around the world declared their authenticity, and for a brief moment, Livorno became the focal point of the global art world. However, just a few weeks later, the hoax was exposed: a group of local high school students and a Livornese sculptor separately confessed to having created the heads. The students intended to mock the extensive and costly search effort, while the sculptor aimed to deliver a scathing critique of the art world's superficiality. The students were even invited on national television, where they reproduced one of the heads live on air using drills and files—perfectly matching those retrieved from the canal mud.The incident became a sensational media case that called into question the concepts of authenticity in art, the authority of experts, and the power of cultural expectations. It was a historic event that perfectly reflected the sardonic, irreverent s…
Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · last wk.

Excited to share my new article on Mina Loy for #ModWrite! It is based on my original archival research into Loy's introduction to Christian Science in Florence and is available to read for free below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 2w ago

Delighted to share that my article on Mina Loy's conversion to Christian Science in Florence around 1909 has been published in Feminist Modernist Studies! Thanks to @euilibrary.bsky.social, the article is Open Access so is free to read & download (see below): doi.org/10.1080/2469...

Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 2w ago

Delighted to share that my article on Mina Loy's conversion to Christian Science in Florence around 1909 has been published in Feminist Modernist Studies! Thanks to @euilibrary.bsky.social, the article is Open Access so is free to read & download (see below): doi.org/10.1080/2469...

The making of Mina Loy’s Christian Science in Florence, Italy

The poet and painter Mina Loy (1882–1966) maintained a life-long, idiosyncratic belief in Christian Science. However, little is known of her formative introduction to the faith in Florence, Italy, ...

doi.org

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

British Association for Modernist Studies (BAMS)@modernistudies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We are delighted to share #TheModernistReview61! Our May issue offers a range of articles, creative pieces, and book reviews. Enjoy! Check it out here: modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2026/05/29/t...

The Modernist Review Issue #61

29 May 2026 As the end of the academic year creeps ever closer, we cannot help but agree with Henry James as he writes ‘Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two mos…

modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com

Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Writing about Surrealism & the rise of fascism & am reminded that at the Feminist Strike in Florence I saw one protester with Max Ernst's painting The Triumph of Surrealism (1937). Depressingly relevant.

Max Ernst's painting The Triumph or Surrealism (or The Angel of the Hearth) 1937, painted after the defeat of the Repulicans in the Spanish civil war. Displayed in a protest placard with a rainbow flag perhaps reminiscent of the Italian PACE flag. Florence, Italy. Event by Non Una di Meno.
Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Imagine being a PhD or Post-Doc Researcher & openly celebrating that you don't do your own reading & writing (that's before you get into plagiarism, loss of skills, environmental devastation, the tech oligarchy & widening social disparity, escalation of global conflict.) Honestly what is the point.

EUI email about promoting Generative AI tools for researchers. Admits that it is already used widely for "writing, coding, literature reviews, [and] data analysis".
Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Today the sculptor Barbara Hepworth is making an appearance in my thesis. Hepworth's time as a scholarship student of art and architecture in Florence was formative to her artistic development so it feels good to write about her here.

Photocopy of a book on Barbara Hepworth. Held up in the upper cloisters of the Badia Fiesolana, San Domenico. Columns, an old fresco, wooden beamed ceiling, and terracotta floors are visible. Florence, Italy.
Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Mina Loy, although born in London & apparently travelling very little in Britain, visited Devon on a family summer holiday in her youth at least once (amusing to me, as someone from Devon). I was thinking about her as I went searching for will o'the wisps in February.

Saddle Tor in Dartmoor National Park. Ancient rugged granite outcrop on open moorland in thick fog. Devon.
Dr Jodie Marley 🔮@jodielmarley.bsky.social · 7mo ago

my author copies of William Blake's Mysticism have arrived. I can hold my book in my hands. Truly, thank you everyone who has supported me through the process of publishing this book. I hope you enjoy reading it 💜💫 amazed most of my publication week flowers lasted too!

copies of my monograph with Palgrave, William Blake's Mysticism, on my desk, with flowers and a pot of tea