Upcoming MA Student Exhibition: Aby Warburg and the Politics of the Stamp
7 August – 3 September 2025
Warburg Institute Kythera Gallery
Free entry – no ticket required
This summer, MA students from the Warburg Institute’s MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture present their group exhibition: Aby Warburg and the Politics of the Stamp.
The exhibition explores Aby Warburg’s fascination with postage stamps – small, everyday objects that he saw as vital messengers of history and visual culture. Drawing on Warburg’s own designs, archival notes and correspondence, the display reveals how stamps embodied his idea of Bilderfahrzeuge – 'image vehicles' that travel across time and geography, transmitting powerful ideas in miniature form.
This exhibition considers how nations express their vision of a shared collective past and imagined future through stamp design. It invites visitors to reflect on how these practical and overlooked images carry global narratives in miniature.
Curated by Celia Donoso Clemente, Francesca Vine, Laura Bennie, Ruairí Sheanon, Tess Hassan and Tessel Krijgsman.
Find out more
Top image: Detail of three Barbados stamps on an envelope addressed to Aby Warburg, 1928, Postage stamps, 13.7 x 7.7 cm (envelope), Warburg Institute Archive, London, WIA III, 2.1. ZK [3].
