Kitty Zijlmans

Kitty Zijlmans (Den Haag 1955) studied History of Art in Leiden. She worked as a History of Art lecturer at the Royal Academy for Art and Design in ’s-Hertogenbosch for some time and has been attached to the Art Historical Institute at Leiden University since 1989. She obtained her PhD based on a dissertation on history of art and system theory: ‘Art / History Art. Theory and practice of an art historical method based on a system theoretical basis’, Leiden 1990.


On 1 July 2000 she was appointed Professor in the History and Theory of contemporary sculptural Art at Leiden University. From 2000-2004 she was chairman of the Art Historical Institute’s Executive Board and from 2002-2004 chairman of Pallas, the Faculty of Arts’ research school for Art Historical and Literary Studies.