Pierre Von-Ow

Pierre Von-Ow (1992, France) is a researcher in art history. His work focuses on the intersections between art and science in the modern era. He is currently completing his thesis at Yale University on a history of perspective in Great Britain and the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2021, Pierre Von-Ow curated the virtual exhibition William Hogarth’s Topographies for the Lewis Walpole Library. Among his publications, he recently co-edited an anthology of Jean-Claude Lebensztejn’s writings on cinema(Propos filmiques, Paris, Macula, 2021) and a special issue of the journal Écrans on William Hogarth and cinema (Paris, Garnier, 2024).

His residency project is devoted to writing two essays. The first is concerned with a palpable history of perspective. This project looks at the various drawing machines, folding engravings and other tactile processes developed to teach geometry and the laws of perspective between the Quattrocento and the Age of Enlightenment. The second essay looks at the circulation of knowledge about anamorphosis between Italy, France and England. His research attempts to determine how these “monstrous perspectives” were perceived in an English context marked by a distrust of images.