School of Culture & Creative Arts

Dr Deborah Lewer

  • Senior Lecturer in History of Art (History of Art)

telephone: 01413302465
email: Deborah.Lewer@gla.systa-s.com
pronouns: She/her/hers

R202 Level 2, History of Art, 8 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692

Research interests

 Email for appointment

Research Interests

Debbie Lewer is a specialist in modern German art and also works in the field of the intersection between art and religious faith. She has published widely on modern art, culture and politics in Germany and Switzerland and is an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow. Her work centres on the German-speaking avant-garde of the period ca. 1910-1933: Zurich Dada, Dada in Germany, German Expressionism, ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’, aspects of modern architecture and the wider literary and visual culture of the Weimar Republic. She has also worked on post-1945 German art in both the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic and has translated many important source texts from German into English.

In recent years the focus of Debbie’s research has been on the complex and significant relationship between theology and art history. This originated in her studies of the Dadaist Hugo Ball and the place of belief, spirituality, religion and theological concepts in histories of modernism and the avant-garde. The broader questions around interdisciplinary approaches to Art History, Faith and Theology is the focus of her work as an Associate Tutor to the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, Salisbury and much of her current writing. She is also a regular speaker and writer for wide audiences on art and faith.

Debbie is a member of the Editorial Board of the UK’s leading journal for the discipline, Art History.She is also a long-standing writer of audioguide scripts for major international museums and collections.  She is a regular speaker and occasional broadcaster for diverse public and professional audiences. She has a strong commitment to public engagement and knowledge exchange beyond academia.

Prior to joining the University of Glasgow in 2001 she held posts as a Lecturer in History of Art at University College London, at Christie’s Education, London, at Manchester University, at Manchester Metropolitan University and at the University of East Anglia. In 2007 she was a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University, Evanston USA and in 2009-10 she was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers hosted at the Institute for Art History at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Publications

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Jump to: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2002 | 1996
Number of items: 68.

2026

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2026) Gothic shadows, little lights and big neon: rethinking the contemporary altarpiece. In: Moffatt, Laura and Irvine, Christopher (eds.) Visual Communion: The Art, Architecture and Craft of the Eucharist. Brepols: Turnhout. ISBN 9782503604701 (In Press)

2025

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2025) ‘And they were terrified’: a sonic Dada nativity (1916/2025). Art and Christianity, 124, pp. 2-5.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2025) Theorizing ritual and art after modernity. In: Eikelboom, Lexi and Newheiser, David (eds.) Art-Making as Spiritual Practice: Rituals of Embodied Understanding. Series: Expanding Philosophy of Religion. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 217-224. ISBN 9781350474185 (doi: 10.5040/9781350474215.ch-26)

2024

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2024) Theology, Modernity and the Visual Arts eds Ben Quash and Chloë Reddaway. Art and Christianity, 120, p. 16. [Book Review]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2024) Dada: how 1916 art movement reacting to world war is inspiring improvisation artists today. Conversation, 29 July. (doi: 10.64628/AB.xvncursyf)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2024) Anselm Kiefer: paradox and play in the ruins of theology. In: McCaffrey, Fergus (ed.) Anselm Kiefer: OPUS MAGNUM. Fergus McCaffrey: Tokyo, pp. 18-26.

2023

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2023) Hugo Ball’s religious conversion. German Life and Letters, 76(3), pp. 376-391. (doi: 10.1111/glal.12378)

2022

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2022) Prescience and power: Otto Dix, Der Krieg 1929-32. Art and Christianity, 112, pp. 12-13.

Williams, Rowan and Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2022) Art and the religious imagination: A conversation with Rowan Williams. Theology in Scotland, 29(1), pp. 23-34. (doi: 10.15664/tis.v29i1.2418)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2022) Vom verlorenen Sohn, dem ungläubigen Thomas und der Offenbarung des Johannes. In: Reusch, Felicitas and LeGrove, Judith (eds.) Egon Altdorf 1922-2008: Die Kunst der inneren Erneuerung: Skulptur, Grafik, Glasfenster, Lyrik. Kunstarche e.V., Reichert Verlag: Wiesbaden, pp. 28-41. ISBN 9783752006629

2021

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Art and the religious imagination: An interview with Rowan Williams. Art and Christianity, 108, pp. 6-10.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Michael Triegel at the Kunsthalle Rostock [Exhibition Review]. Art and Christianity, 106,

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Review of "Total Expansion of the Letter: Avant-Garde Art and Language After Mallarmé" by Trevor Stark. caa.reviews, 2021(Mar 4), (doi: 10.3202/caa.reviews.2021.17)[Book Review]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Psalms 15 and 14: Who May Abide? [Website]

2020

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Ernst Barlach, sculpture and the "terrible year" 1937. London Art History Society Review, pp. 15-17.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Kleinkunst and Gesamtkunstwerk in Munich and Zurich: Der Blaue Reiter and Dada. In: Price, Dororthy (ed.) German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter and its Legacies. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 105-122. ISBN 9781526121622

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) On not seeing Breugel (Epiphany). Other Journal, 31,

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) 2 Timothy 2: God's Firm Foundation, in Visual Commentary on Scripture. [Website]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Art, faith and fear. Art and Christianity, 102, pp. 2-5.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Proverbs 11: Straight and Crooked Paths to Wisdom, in Visual Commentary on Scripture. [Website]

2019

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2019) Luxury and the loom: re‐thinking modernism's materiality. Art History, 42(5), pp. 1008-1012. (doi: 10.1111/1467-8365.12478)[Book Review]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2019) Mat Collishaw: The Nerve Rack [Exhibition Review]. Art and Christianity, 99, pp. 13-14.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2019) Max Beckmann's Hell 1919. In: Black, Peter (ed.) The German Revolution: Expressionist Prints. The Hunterian: Glasgow, pp. 72-95. ISBN 9780904254990

2018

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2018) 'Wonder vs. therapy' in art and Christianity. Art and Christianity, 93, pp. 2-5.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2018) Conference report: Religion in Museum Education, Instituto Lorenzo de'Medici, Florence. Art and Christianity, 94, pp. 18-19.

2016

Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2016) Dada's Genesis: Zurich. In: Hopkins, David (ed.) A Companion to Dada and Surrealism. Series: Wiley Blackwell companions to art history (10). Wiley Blackwell: Chichester, pp. 21-37. ISBN 9781118476185

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2016) The Problem of God, K21 Dusseldorf [exhibition review]. Art and Christianity, 85, pp. 9-10.

2015

Seiwert, Franz W. and Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2015) Constantin Brancusi, the Sculptor. Art in Translation, 7(3), pp. 399-404. (doi: 10.1080/17561310.2015.1082851)

Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2015) Love at work: avant-garde couples in expressionism, Dada and beyond. Art History, 38(1), pp. 221-225. (doi: 10.1111/1467-8365.12139)[Book Review]

2014

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2014) Hannah Höch, performance and the anti-revue. In: Ades, Dawn, Butler, Emily and Hermann, Daniel F. (eds.) Hannah Höch [exhibition catalogue]. Whitechapel Gallery / Prestel: London / Munich, pp. 30-37. ISBN 9783791353432

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2014) "The uncorrupt image”: Hugo Ball, Zurich Dada and the aesthetics, politics, and metaphysics of asceticism. In: Hopkins, D. and White, M. (eds.) Virgin Microbe: Essays on Dada. Series: Avant-garde and modernism studies. Northwestern University Press: Evanston, IL, pp. 91-116. ISBN 9780810129399

Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2014) Review of: John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography, Persuasion, and the Rise of the Avant-Garde Photomontage. History of Photography, 38(4), pp. 435-437. (doi: 10.1080/03087298.2014.967941)

2013

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) Translation from the German and introduction to: Hugo Ball, 'On Occultism, the Hieratic, and Other Strangely Beautiful Things' (1917). Art in Translation, 5(3), pp. 403-408. (doi: 10.2752/175613113X13708628811016)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) Introduction: art and cultural politics in the German Democratic Republic. Art in Translation, 5(1), pp. 5-14. (doi: 10.2752/175613113X13547854569041)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) "Eine Epoche ähnlich jener des zu Ende gehenden Mittelalters": die kulturkritische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Mittelalter in der Weimarer Republik ["An Epoch like that of the waning Middle Ages": cultural-critical engagement with the medieval in the Weimar Republic]. In: Reudenbach, B. and Steinkamp, M. (eds.) Mittelalterbilder im Nationalsozialismus. Series: Hamburger Forschungen zur Kunstgeschichte (9). Akademie Verlag Gmbh: Berlin, Germany, pp. 49-62. ISBN 9783050060965

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) Special Issue on Art in the GDR [Volume Editor]. Art in Translation, 5(1),

2012

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) Introduction to: Julia Gelshorn, 'The Reception of History and the History of Reception. On the Contemporaneity of Gerhard Richter' translated by Claudia Heide. Art in Translation, 4(2), pp. 186-187.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) Dada, carnival and revolution. In: Bru, S., Baetens, J., Hjartarson, B., Nicholls, P., Orum, T. and van den Berg, H. (eds.) Regarding the Popular: Modernism, Avant-Garde and High and Low Culture. Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany, pp. 99-114. ISBN 9783110274561

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) Radical type: the visual languages of Der Dada (Berlin 1919-1920). Kritische Berichte, 4(40), pp. 11-20.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) "Sind wir nicht magische Eklektizisten?": Eklektizismus, das Wort und das Bild im Z. In: Lehmann, D. and Petri, G. (eds.) Eklektizismus und eklektische Verfahren in der Kunst. Series: Studien Zur Kunstgeschichte (195). Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Germany, pp. 281-296. ISBN 9783487147888

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692, Bru, S., Thacker, A. and Weikop, C, (2012) The avant-garde in Swiss exile 1914-20: Der Mistral (1915), Sirius (1915-16), Cabaret Voltaire (1916), Dada (1917-19), 391 (No. 8, 1918), Der Zeltweg (1919), Almanach der Freien Zeitung (1918). In: Brooker, P. (ed.) The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines: Europe 1880-1940. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 1032-1056. ISBN 9780199681303

2011

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) Die Zerstörung der Kathedrale von Reims und ihre Folgen für das Deutsch-Französische Verhältnis und die Kunstgeschichte [The destruction of Rheims Cathedral and the consequences for German-French relations and art history]. In: Imhof, M. (ed.) Wissenschaftlicher Begleitband zur Landesausstellung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt Der Naumburger Meister. Bildhauer und Architekt im Europa der Kathedralen. Verlag: Petersberg, pp. 317-324.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) German Expressionism as 'Gesamtkunstwerk'? Review of Ralf Beil and Claudia Dillmann eds., Gesamtkunstwerk Expressionismus, Exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, 2010. Art History, 34(5), pp. 1065-1068. (doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00863.x)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) L’art des deux Allemagne. Perspective, 2010/2(3), pp. 361-365.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) Revolution and the Weimar avant-garde: contesting the politics of art, 1919-1924. In: Williams, J.A. (ed.) Weimar Culture Revisited. Series: Studies in European culture and history. Palgrave Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780230109421

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) Translation from the German and introduction to: Siegfried Kracauer, 'A Turn in Art's Destiny' (1920). Art in Translation, 3(4), pp. 433-440.

2010

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2010) David Hopkins, Dada’s Boys (London and New Haven 2008) and Ruth Hemus, Dada’s Women (London and New Haven 2009). Hugo-Ball-Almanach Studien und Texte zu Dada, pp. 157-165. [Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2010) Erwin Blumenfeld at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. Hugo-Ball-Almanach Studien und Texte zu Dada, pp. 172-176.

2009

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2009) Hugo Ball, iconoclasm and the origins of Dada in Zurich. Oxford Art Journal, 32(1), pp. 17-35. (doi: 10.1093/oxartj/kcn031)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2009) After fascism: two views of two Germanys. Oxford Art Journal, 32(3), pp. 466-471. (doi: 10.1093/oxartj/kcp038)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2009) Painting as a weapon: progressive Cologne 1920-33. Seiwert – Hoerle – Arntz by Lynette Roth. German Studies Review, pp. 239-240. [Book Review]

2008

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2008) Berlin: portrait of a city by Hans Christian Adam. Art Book, 15(2), pp. 64-66. [Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2008) EX ORIENTE DADA? Dada East: The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire by Tom Sandqvist. Art History, 31(2), pp. 248-250. [Book Review]

2007

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Dada's Boys: Identity and Play in Contemporary Art. Papers of Surrealism, 5, pp. 1-10.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) The agitator and the legacy of the avant-garde in the German Democratic Republic: Willi Sitte’s Rufer II (Caller II) of 1964. Art History and Criticism, 3, pp. 62-69.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Art archive Beeskow. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, July, pp. 51-54.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Exhibition review: 'O.M. Ungers. Kosmos der Architektur, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin'. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, Februa, p. 22.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Fuga Saeculi – Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich. Papers of Surrealism, 6,

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Gottfried Honnegger, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, Novemb, p. 118.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich: Furniture and Interiors, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, June, p. 112.

2006

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2006) Boys’ Club: Dada’s Boys: Roundtable Discussion. MAP, 6, pp. 34-39.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2006) Brush up on your History. School Leaver, 36(1), pp. 36-37.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2006) Modern Architectural Theory by Harry Francis Mallgrave. Newsletter of the Historians of British Art, April, [Book Review]

2005

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (Ed.) (2005) Post-Impressionism to World War II. Series: Blackwell Anthologies in Art History. Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford. ISBN 1405111526

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2005) Expressionism. Parkstone Sirrocco Press. ISBN 1844847152

2002

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2002) Neutrality under Threat: Freedom, Use and "Abuse" of the Press in Switzerland 1914-1919. In: Gee, M. and Kirk, T, (eds.) Printed Matters: Printing, Publishing and Urban Culture in the Modern Period. Ashgate Press, pp. 132-149. ISBN 978-0754602798

1996

Howard, M. and Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (Eds.) (1996) A New Order: An Evening at Cabaret Voltaire. Manchester Metropolitan University. ISBN 9780951030325

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (1996) From the Cabaret Voltaire to the Kaufleutensaal: “Mapping” Zurich Dada. In: Pichon, B. and Riha, K. (eds.) Dada Zurich: A Clown’s Game from Nothing. G.K. Hall. ISBN 9780816173280

This list was generated on Thu May 21 13:16:34 2026 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Edited Books | Website
Number of items: 68.

Articles

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2025) ‘And they were terrified’: a sonic Dada nativity (1916/2025). Art and Christianity, 124, pp. 2-5.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2024) Dada: how 1916 art movement reacting to world war is inspiring improvisation artists today. Conversation, 29 July. (doi: 10.64628/AB.xvncursyf)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2023) Hugo Ball’s religious conversion. German Life and Letters, 76(3), pp. 376-391. (doi: 10.1111/glal.12378)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2022) Prescience and power: Otto Dix, Der Krieg 1929-32. Art and Christianity, 112, pp. 12-13.

Williams, Rowan and Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2022) Art and the religious imagination: A conversation with Rowan Williams. Theology in Scotland, 29(1), pp. 23-34. (doi: 10.15664/tis.v29i1.2418)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Art and the religious imagination: An interview with Rowan Williams. Art and Christianity, 108, pp. 6-10.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Michael Triegel at the Kunsthalle Rostock [Exhibition Review]. Art and Christianity, 106,

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Ernst Barlach, sculpture and the "terrible year" 1937. London Art History Society Review, pp. 15-17.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) On not seeing Breugel (Epiphany). Other Journal, 31,

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Art, faith and fear. Art and Christianity, 102, pp. 2-5.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2019) Mat Collishaw: The Nerve Rack [Exhibition Review]. Art and Christianity, 99, pp. 13-14.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2018) 'Wonder vs. therapy' in art and Christianity. Art and Christianity, 93, pp. 2-5.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2018) Conference report: Religion in Museum Education, Instituto Lorenzo de'Medici, Florence. Art and Christianity, 94, pp. 18-19.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2016) The Problem of God, K21 Dusseldorf [exhibition review]. Art and Christianity, 85, pp. 9-10.

Seiwert, Franz W. and Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2015) Constantin Brancusi, the Sculptor. Art in Translation, 7(3), pp. 399-404. (doi: 10.1080/17561310.2015.1082851)

Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2014) Review of: John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography, Persuasion, and the Rise of the Avant-Garde Photomontage. History of Photography, 38(4), pp. 435-437. (doi: 10.1080/03087298.2014.967941)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) Translation from the German and introduction to: Hugo Ball, 'On Occultism, the Hieratic, and Other Strangely Beautiful Things' (1917). Art in Translation, 5(3), pp. 403-408. (doi: 10.2752/175613113X13708628811016)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) Introduction: art and cultural politics in the German Democratic Republic. Art in Translation, 5(1), pp. 5-14. (doi: 10.2752/175613113X13547854569041)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) Special Issue on Art in the GDR [Volume Editor]. Art in Translation, 5(1),

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) Introduction to: Julia Gelshorn, 'The Reception of History and the History of Reception. On the Contemporaneity of Gerhard Richter' translated by Claudia Heide. Art in Translation, 4(2), pp. 186-187.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) Radical type: the visual languages of Der Dada (Berlin 1919-1920). Kritische Berichte, 4(40), pp. 11-20.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) German Expressionism as 'Gesamtkunstwerk'? Review of Ralf Beil and Claudia Dillmann eds., Gesamtkunstwerk Expressionismus, Exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, 2010. Art History, 34(5), pp. 1065-1068. (doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00863.x)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) L’art des deux Allemagne. Perspective, 2010/2(3), pp. 361-365.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) Translation from the German and introduction to: Siegfried Kracauer, 'A Turn in Art's Destiny' (1920). Art in Translation, 3(4), pp. 433-440.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2010) Erwin Blumenfeld at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. Hugo-Ball-Almanach Studien und Texte zu Dada, pp. 172-176.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2009) Hugo Ball, iconoclasm and the origins of Dada in Zurich. Oxford Art Journal, 32(1), pp. 17-35. (doi: 10.1093/oxartj/kcn031)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2009) After fascism: two views of two Germanys. Oxford Art Journal, 32(3), pp. 466-471. (doi: 10.1093/oxartj/kcp038)

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Dada's Boys: Identity and Play in Contemporary Art. Papers of Surrealism, 5, pp. 1-10.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) The agitator and the legacy of the avant-garde in the German Democratic Republic: Willi Sitte’s Rufer II (Caller II) of 1964. Art History and Criticism, 3, pp. 62-69.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Art archive Beeskow. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, July, pp. 51-54.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Exhibition review: 'O.M. Ungers. Kosmos der Architektur, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin'. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, Februa, p. 22.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Fuga Saeculi – Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich. Papers of Surrealism, 6,

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Gottfried Honnegger, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, Novemb, p. 118.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2007) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich: Furniture and Interiors, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany. Blueprint Magazine: Architecture and Design, June, p. 112.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2006) Boys’ Club: Dada’s Boys: Roundtable Discussion. MAP, 6, pp. 34-39.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2006) Brush up on your History. School Leaver, 36(1), pp. 36-37.

Books

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2005) Expressionism. Parkstone Sirrocco Press. ISBN 1844847152

Book Sections

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2026) Gothic shadows, little lights and big neon: rethinking the contemporary altarpiece. In: Moffatt, Laura and Irvine, Christopher (eds.) Visual Communion: The Art, Architecture and Craft of the Eucharist. Brepols: Turnhout. ISBN 9782503604701 (In Press)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2025) Theorizing ritual and art after modernity. In: Eikelboom, Lexi and Newheiser, David (eds.) Art-Making as Spiritual Practice: Rituals of Embodied Understanding. Series: Expanding Philosophy of Religion. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 217-224. ISBN 9781350474185 (doi: 10.5040/9781350474215.ch-26)

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2024) Anselm Kiefer: paradox and play in the ruins of theology. In: McCaffrey, Fergus (ed.) Anselm Kiefer: OPUS MAGNUM. Fergus McCaffrey: Tokyo, pp. 18-26.

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2022) Vom verlorenen Sohn, dem ungläubigen Thomas und der Offenbarung des Johannes. In: Reusch, Felicitas and LeGrove, Judith (eds.) Egon Altdorf 1922-2008: Die Kunst der inneren Erneuerung: Skulptur, Grafik, Glasfenster, Lyrik. Kunstarche e.V., Reichert Verlag: Wiesbaden, pp. 28-41. ISBN 9783752006629

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Kleinkunst and Gesamtkunstwerk in Munich and Zurich: Der Blaue Reiter and Dada. In: Price, Dororthy (ed.) German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter and its Legacies. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 105-122. ISBN 9781526121622

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2019) Max Beckmann's Hell 1919. In: Black, Peter (ed.) The German Revolution: Expressionist Prints. The Hunterian: Glasgow, pp. 72-95. ISBN 9780904254990

Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2016) Dada's Genesis: Zurich. In: Hopkins, David (ed.) A Companion to Dada and Surrealism. Series: Wiley Blackwell companions to art history (10). Wiley Blackwell: Chichester, pp. 21-37. ISBN 9781118476185

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2014) Hannah Höch, performance and the anti-revue. In: Ades, Dawn, Butler, Emily and Hermann, Daniel F. (eds.) Hannah Höch [exhibition catalogue]. Whitechapel Gallery / Prestel: London / Munich, pp. 30-37. ISBN 9783791353432

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2014) "The uncorrupt image”: Hugo Ball, Zurich Dada and the aesthetics, politics, and metaphysics of asceticism. In: Hopkins, D. and White, M. (eds.) Virgin Microbe: Essays on Dada. Series: Avant-garde and modernism studies. Northwestern University Press: Evanston, IL, pp. 91-116. ISBN 9780810129399

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2013) "Eine Epoche ähnlich jener des zu Ende gehenden Mittelalters": die kulturkritische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Mittelalter in der Weimarer Republik ["An Epoch like that of the waning Middle Ages": cultural-critical engagement with the medieval in the Weimar Republic]. In: Reudenbach, B. and Steinkamp, M. (eds.) Mittelalterbilder im Nationalsozialismus. Series: Hamburger Forschungen zur Kunstgeschichte (9). Akademie Verlag Gmbh: Berlin, Germany, pp. 49-62. ISBN 9783050060965

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) Dada, carnival and revolution. In: Bru, S., Baetens, J., Hjartarson, B., Nicholls, P., Orum, T. and van den Berg, H. (eds.) Regarding the Popular: Modernism, Avant-Garde and High and Low Culture. Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany, pp. 99-114. ISBN 9783110274561

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2012) "Sind wir nicht magische Eklektizisten?": Eklektizismus, das Wort und das Bild im Z. In: Lehmann, D. and Petri, G. (eds.) Eklektizismus und eklektische Verfahren in der Kunst. Series: Studien Zur Kunstgeschichte (195). Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Germany, pp. 281-296. ISBN 9783487147888

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692, Bru, S., Thacker, A. and Weikop, C, (2012) The avant-garde in Swiss exile 1914-20: Der Mistral (1915), Sirius (1915-16), Cabaret Voltaire (1916), Dada (1917-19), 391 (No. 8, 1918), Der Zeltweg (1919), Almanach der Freien Zeitung (1918). In: Brooker, P. (ed.) The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines: Europe 1880-1940. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 1032-1056. ISBN 9780199681303

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) Die Zerstörung der Kathedrale von Reims und ihre Folgen für das Deutsch-Französische Verhältnis und die Kunstgeschichte [The destruction of Rheims Cathedral and the consequences for German-French relations and art history]. In: Imhof, M. (ed.) Wissenschaftlicher Begleitband zur Landesausstellung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt Der Naumburger Meister. Bildhauer und Architekt im Europa der Kathedralen. Verlag: Petersberg, pp. 317-324.

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2011) Revolution and the Weimar avant-garde: contesting the politics of art, 1919-1924. In: Williams, J.A. (ed.) Weimar Culture Revisited. Series: Studies in European culture and history. Palgrave Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780230109421

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2002) Neutrality under Threat: Freedom, Use and "Abuse" of the Press in Switzerland 1914-1919. In: Gee, M. and Kirk, T, (eds.) Printed Matters: Printing, Publishing and Urban Culture in the Modern Period. Ashgate Press, pp. 132-149. ISBN 978-0754602798

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (1996) From the Cabaret Voltaire to the Kaufleutensaal: “Mapping” Zurich Dada. In: Pichon, B. and Riha, K. (eds.) Dada Zurich: A Clown’s Game from Nothing. G.K. Hall. ISBN 9780816173280

Book Reviews

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2024) Theology, Modernity and the Visual Arts eds Ben Quash and Chloë Reddaway. Art and Christianity, 120, p. 16. [Book Review]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Review of "Total Expansion of the Letter: Avant-Garde Art and Language After Mallarmé" by Trevor Stark. caa.reviews, 2021(Mar 4), (doi: 10.3202/caa.reviews.2021.17)[Book Review]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2019) Luxury and the loom: re‐thinking modernism's materiality. Art History, 42(5), pp. 1008-1012. (doi: 10.1111/1467-8365.12478)[Book Review]

Lewer, Debbie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2015) Love at work: avant-garde couples in expressionism, Dada and beyond. Art History, 38(1), pp. 221-225. (doi: 10.1111/1467-8365.12139)[Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2010) David Hopkins, Dada’s Boys (London and New Haven 2008) and Ruth Hemus, Dada’s Women (London and New Haven 2009). Hugo-Ball-Almanach Studien und Texte zu Dada, pp. 157-165. [Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2009) Painting as a weapon: progressive Cologne 1920-33. Seiwert – Hoerle – Arntz by Lynette Roth. German Studies Review, pp. 239-240. [Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2008) Berlin: portrait of a city by Hans Christian Adam. Art Book, 15(2), pp. 64-66. [Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2008) EX ORIENTE DADA? Dada East: The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire by Tom Sandqvist. Art History, 31(2), pp. 248-250. [Book Review]

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2006) Modern Architectural Theory by Harry Francis Mallgrave. Newsletter of the Historians of British Art, April, [Book Review]

Edited Books

Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (Ed.) (2005) Post-Impressionism to World War II. Series: Blackwell Anthologies in Art History. Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford. ISBN 1405111526

Howard, M. and Lewer, D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (Eds.) (1996) A New Order: An Evening at Cabaret Voltaire. Manchester Metropolitan University. ISBN 9780951030325

Website

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2021) Psalms 15 and 14: Who May Abide? [Website]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) 2 Timothy 2: God's Firm Foundation, in Visual Commentary on Scripture. [Website]

Lewer, Deborah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1692 (2020) Proverbs 11: Straight and Crooked Paths to Wisdom, in Visual Commentary on Scripture. [Website]

This list was generated on Thu May 21 13:16:34 2026 BST.

Grants

Supervision

Current PhD supervision:

 

Art in the New Democratic Paradigm: Autonomy, Technique, Participation

 

Building a Nation: The Construction of Modern China through the CCP’s Propaganda Images

 

Figuring the Atrocious: Trauma Representation in Contemporary Art Practice

 

 

  • Green, Carol
    Collecting Modern Art in the Nazi Germany: An Examination of the Collection of Kurt Feldhäusser 1930-1950

PhD supervision:

 

Debbie has supervised to completion PhDs on a range of topics, including:

 

Visual Representations of Working-Class Berlin 1924-1930

 

The Self-Portraits of Marta Astfalck-Vietz

 

The Cross-Cultural Rituals of 20th-Century Dance: Mary Wigman, Martha Graham, Pina Bausch

 

The Evolution of the Alchemical Androgyne in Symbolist and Surrealist Art

 

Re-Reading Surrealism through the Fairytale

 

Boundaries of Horror: Joan Miró and Georges Bataille, 1930-40

 

She has also examined a number of PhDs as both Internal and External Examiner.

 

Teaching

Levels 1 and 2: lectures on a wide range of topics from the 16th century to the present

 

Junior Honours Level 3: Courses include:

German Art in the Era of the Cold War

Architecture and Modernity 1900-1950

Art and Theology in Dialogue (with Theology and Religious Studies, forthcoming in 2018-19)

 

Senior Honours Level 4:

Art and Politics in Weimar Germany 1918-1933

 

Postgraduate MLitt Level 5:

Dada in Germany and Switzerland

Theories of the Avantgarde (Core Course for Art: Politics: Transgression: the 20th-Century Avantgardes)

 

Core teaching on Methodology, Portfolio and Research Methods as well as teaching on the Bauhaus for the cross-School honours course on Interwar Cultures.

 

External teaching: MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, Salisbury, Core Course

Additional information

UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT, PUBLIC ENAGAGEMENT, EXTERNAL CONSULTANCY, AND EXAMINATION

 

School, College (or formerly Faculty) Level:

School Quality Officer (2012-2015)

Research Ethics Officer (2015-16)

Member of School Postgraduate Committee (2012-2015)

Faculty of Arts Advisor of Studies (2004-2009)

Member of Faculty Undergraduate Studies Committee (2003-4)

Member of Faculty Board of Studies (2002-3)

 

Subject Level:

Head of Subject (2016-17)

Postgraduate Research Convenor (2012-2015)

International Officer (Erasmus 2007-2016, Year Abroad International Exchange 2011-2016)

Co-convenor of MLitt Art: Politics: Transgression (since 2007)

Convenor and re-designer of J. Hons. Methodology core course (2007-8) and Portfolio (2017-18)

Level 2 convenor (2002-5)

Special Needs Facilitator / Disability Officer (2004-2009)

 

External Examining:

University of Durham, History of Art (undergraduate)

University of Manchester, BA in History of Art (Modern Period) (2008-2011)

University College Cork, Modern and Contemporary MA (Masters’ Degree) (2007-2010)

University of Plymouth, BA History of Art (2013-2017)

University College London: PhD External Examiner (2009)

Courtauld Institute of Art: PhD External Examiner (2017)

University of Durham: PhD External Examiner (2018)

Research Quality Review Committee: University College Cork (2008-9)

 

Professional memberships (past and present):

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow

Association of Art Historians (UK)

European Avantgarde and Modernism Network

Art + Christianity Enquiry

Board of Trustees, Solas Festival (2014-2016)

Verband deutscher Kunsthistoriker (Union of German Art Historians)

GSA (German Studies Association)

CAA (College Art Association, USA).

 

Public Engagement

Public lectures at a wide range of institutions and events including:

 

National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh

Glasgow School of Art

Goethe-Institut Glasgow

National Portrait Gallery, London

London Jewish Cultural Centre

Tate Modern, London

Royal Academy of Art, London

Barber Institute, Birmingham

Peninsula Arts, Plymouth

Block Museum, Northwestern University, USA

Gladstone’s Library

Greenbelt Festival

Iona Community

Solas Festival

 

Consultant and filming for the Franco-German ARTE  television documentary Germany: Art of Nation in 2013. Writing and research for the audioguide to the major collection of modern Irish Art at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin in 2015.

Debbie has led several retreats and workshops on the theme of art and faith, including with Gladstone’s Library, Lee Abbey Devon, Ripon College Cuddesdon (for ordinands) and with the Iona Community.


Debbie Lewer