To Change or not to change the Wallace Collection? : talk delivered on 8 November 2017 by Dr Xavier Bray (Director of the Wallace Collection) at Royal Holloway, U of London.
Dr Bray explores the relationship between curating, display, and space, examining the ways in which different practices of curating can shape our understanding of physical as well as cultural environments. The Wallace Collection has unsurpassed displays of French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury.
Dr Bray is a renowned specialist in 17th- and 18th-century art, and Spanish Golden Age art. He started his museum career as an assistant curator at the National Gallery in 1998, before moving to Bilbao to lead the curatorial programme at the Museo de Bellas Artes. In 2002 he returned to the National Gallery as head of Spanish art. In 2011 he took up the post of chief curator at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, before moving to the Wallace Collection in October 2016. He has curated and co-curated a number of exhibitions, which include: ‘A Brush with Nature: The Gere Collection of Oil Sketches’, ‘An Intimate Vision: Women Impressionists’, ‘El Greco’, ‘Caravaggio’, ‘Velázquez’, ‘The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700’, ‘Murillo and Justino de Neve: The Art of Friendship’ and ‘Goya: The Portraits’.
Introduction by Professor Giuliana Pieri (Head of the School of Humanities, Royal Holloway).
