Art History Department
Topic of Research: Representations of dirt, cleanliness and hygiene in the 19th century French Art
Advisor: Prof. Gal Ventura
Abstract: Paris has undergone significant changes in public and personal hygiene during the nineteenth century. The "hygienization" of Paris was led by scientific discoveries but also by political, educational, economic, and ideological processes that affected the collective and the individual. Medical guides and regulations regarding the preservation of private and public hygiene were published over the century, leading to the development of the city's infrastructure, the establishment of health organizations, and the change of the cleaning customs of the residents. These innovations have created a collection of practices emphasizing the importance of a clean body and environment as a reflection of physical and mental health and moral and cultural values. Practices of cleanliness, which were part of the conceptions of individualism and subjectivity, were linked to concepts of modernity and were an integral part of the aspiration to establish a new social order. My research seeks to understand the role of visual culture as part of the discourse of hygiene and the connection between historical, social, scientific-medical, cultural, and political changes and visual representations dealing with cleanliness, dirt, and hygiene. Understanding the visual culture as part of the medicalization process of Paris will allow us to show how visual culture has joined the medical discourse and has influenced behavior patterns in society and culture.
Bio: Amit Kestenbaum is a Ph. D candidate in the Art History Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and his M.A. from the Art History Department at the Hebrew University. His M.A. thesis focused on representations of masculinities in Contemporary Israeli Art. His research areas are the socio-medical aspects of nineteenth-century French society, especially those concerning cleanliness, hygiene, and sanitation. He is also interested in representations of gender, visual and material culture, and marginal people in modern society.
President Scholarship 2021/22