New Director for the Wallace Collection
June 2 2016
Picture: Art Fund
Excellent news that Xavier Bray is to be the next Director of the Wallace Collection in London. Xavier has most recently been Chief Curator at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and before that has been at the National Gallery. He has been responsible for a series of highly successful and innovative exhibitions, such as The Sacred Made Real. More on the announcement here.
I spent some time with him a while ago, and found him to be a very Good Thing, a deep thinker on all matters art historical. There’s an interesting interview with him here on the Art Fund website. He will bring new energy and dedication to the Wallace, which, while undoubtedly a jewel in the British museum crown, seems to me to be somewhat in need of a fresh purpose, or at least outlook.
I know that anyone running the Wallace is constrained by the unusual strictures of the collection’s bequest (no loans out and nothing new) but perhaps it’s time to think the unthinkable and break free from the conditions of Lady Wallace’s 1897 bequest. I may be in a minority, but I think collections need to be be ‘alive’ in some respects, and borrowing, sharing, and buying works is an essential part of that.
The Bowes Museum is a good example of how a collection built and bequeathed by an individual can put on exhibitions and buy new, relevant works, without diminishing the original collection’s ethos and feel - in fact, such an approach enhances it. At the Wallace, there is a token, very small exhibition room in the basement, but that’s about it. And it’s not as if the Wallace’s interior, the actual layout and fabric of the building, is preserved as a glimpse into the world of the Wallaces’ London of the late 19thC. The building has changed - why not the collection too?
Update - I omitted to mention of course that Xavier curated the recent and superb Goya Portraits exhibition at the National Gallery in London.
Update II - Apollo Magazine also discusses some of the points above, here.
