How to Curate a Commission

Intriguing online lecture from the National Gallery discussing the history of the gallery commissioning new work.

Daniel Herrmann, the Ardalan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Project at the gallery, started by outlining the tradition of the gallery incorporating contemporary art going back to the reuse of a statue of Britannia for Marble Arch being reconfigured to become Minerva for the front of the building.

Hermann then talked about the mosaics in the old entrance by Boris Anrep and how he combined classical ideas with contemporary cultural references as well as talking about how they were made.

Most interesting was when he discussed the commissioning of two recent works, Bridget Riley’s “Messengers” and Richard Long’s “Mud Sun”, talking about how they worked with the artists to create the works. He also mentioned the wonderful “Triumph of Art” project to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the gallery which I had attended in Trafalgar Square.



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