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Penelope Curtis
Current Director of Tate Britain
Biography
1988 - 93: Exhibitions Curator, Tate Liverpool
1994 - 99: Head of Centre for the Study of Sculpture, Leeds Museums & Galleries / Henry Moore Institute
1999 - 2010: Curator, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Director Tate Britain since April 2010
The last four years she has also been chair of the Turner Prize judging panel.
Penelope Curtis is a without a doubt a hero of mine. She was nicknamed the matriarch of the museum in April Twenty-Ten when she became the first female director of Tate Britain. Curtis has worked hard to achieve her competitive position within the world of British art. She was not born into the art world, her father was a biologist and her mother looked after the family. She studied at Oxford before completing her masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Curtis has had an inspiring career to date but it is her position as director of Tate Britain that I am particularly interested in discussing. Twenty-Thirteen marked the rehang of the Tate Britain from a thematic collection of works to presenting the continuity of British art through a chronological circuit. Curtis scrapped the explanatory texts that visitors would usually be accustomed to seeing accompanying the work. This controversial decision was a revolutionary move away from the Tate model of an exhibition hang. The rehang has been dubbed 'A Walk Through British Art' as it displays the canon of art in Britain from 1540 to works of contemporary art. There are many benefits to chronological curation and the eradication of wall labels, the most obvious being consumer interaction. Removing curatorial thematic decisions allows for a visitor to make their own connections between the works, allowing the viewer to walk through major periods in the history of Britain and question the works on display with the aesthetic, social, political, and even philosophical concerns of the period of production. The rehang was not without its criticism, arguments erupted between some art historians that believed that the rehang was only good for driving home the idea that contrasting methods of artistic production were taking place during the same time period. I have to disagree with this theory, I think the point of the rehang intended to put forward 'Ways of Seeing', as John Berger stated in his book of the same title. Curtis, I believe, intended to emphasis the importance of looking at art in an aim to diverge away from what has become so wrapped up in theorises and artists intentions. The time-specific focus brought together the vast expertise of the new director and the Tate curators and I believe that the success proved the capacity of reinvention within the contemporary museum sector.
1988 - 93: Exhibitions Curator, Tate Liverpool
1994 - 99: Head of Centre for the Study of Sculpture, Leeds Museums & Galleries / Henry Moore Institute
1999 - 2010: Curator, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Director Tate Britain since April 2010
The last four years she has also been chair of the Turner Prize judging panel.
Penelope Curtis is a without a doubt a hero of mine. She was nicknamed the matriarch of the museum in April Twenty-Ten when she became the first female director of Tate Britain. Curtis has worked hard to achieve her competitive position within the world of British art. She was not born into the art world, her father was a biologist and her mother looked after the family. She studied at Oxford before completing her masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Curtis has had an inspiring career to date but it is her position as director of Tate Britain that I am particularly interested in discussing. Twenty-Thirteen marked the rehang of the Tate Britain from a thematic collection of works to presenting the continuity of British art through a chronological circuit. Curtis scrapped the explanatory texts that visitors would usually be accustomed to seeing accompanying the work. This controversial decision was a revolutionary move away from the Tate model of an exhibition hang. The rehang has been dubbed 'A Walk Through British Art' as it displays the canon of art in Britain from 1540 to works of contemporary art. There are many benefits to chronological curation and the eradication of wall labels, the most obvious being consumer interaction. Removing curatorial thematic decisions allows for a visitor to make their own connections between the works, allowing the viewer to walk through major periods in the history of Britain and question the works on display with the aesthetic, social, political, and even philosophical concerns of the period of production. The rehang was not without its criticism, arguments erupted between some art historians that believed that the rehang was only good for driving home the idea that contrasting methods of artistic production were taking place during the same time period. I have to disagree with this theory, I think the point of the rehang intended to put forward 'Ways of Seeing', as John Berger stated in his book of the same title. Curtis, I believe, intended to emphasis the importance of looking at art in an aim to diverge away from what has become so wrapped up in theorises and artists intentions. The time-specific focus brought together the vast expertise of the new director and the Tate curators and I believe that the success proved the capacity of reinvention within the contemporary museum sector.
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