Paul Greenhalgh

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Paul Greenhalgh (born 1955) is a writer, historian, and curator of art and design. For the last 25 years he has been a senior figure or director of a number of arts organisations, in the UK, Canada, and the USA. Since November 2010 he has been Director of the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia,^[1] UK, and Professor of Art History and Museum Strategy at UEA. He has recently become Executive Director.

Background[]

Greenhalgh was born and educated in Bolton, and educated there in the public sector at Smithills Grammar School. He has degrees in Fine art and Art History from University of Reading and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.^{[citation needed]}

His posts have included Lecturer at Cardiff College of Art and Design (1980-1989); Tutor at the Royal College of Art (1989-1992); Deputy Keeper of Ceramics and Glass and Head of Research at the V&A Museum in London (1989-2000); President of NSCAD University in Canada (2001-2006); President and Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art and Design, Washington DC (2006-2010).^[2] He then returned to England to take up the post of Director of the Sainsbury Centre.^[2]

He trained and practiced as a painter at the beginning of his career, before steadily moving into being a writer, teacher, and curator. He has published a number of books, and curated many exhibitions, and lectured internationally.

Greenhalgh is a specialist in the decorative arts and artistic movements from 1850 to 1940.^[2]

Publications[]

• 2020 - Ceramic, Art and Civilisation,^[3] 220,000 words, 420 illustrations, London, Bloomsbury.
• 2020 - The Nature of Dreams: England and the Formation of Art Nouveau (editor and principal author) 35,000 words, 120 illustrations.
• 2018 - Being Modern: the Cultural Impact of Science in the early 20th century (editor with Morag Shiach, Robert Bud, and Frank James), 200,000 words, 30 illustrations.
• 2013 – L’Art Nouveau: La Revolution Décorative (principal author and editor; catalogue for the exhibition of the same title), Paris April 2013, 50,000 words, 230 plates, Pinocothéque de Paris.
• 2011 – Fair World: A History of World’s Fairs and Expositions 1851-2010, 130,000 words, 230 plates, London, Papadakis.
• 2005 – The Modern Ideal: The Rise and Collapse of Idealism in the Visual Arts from the Enlightenment to Postmodernism, 160,000 words, 120 plates, London and New York, Victoria and Albert Museum, Abrams.
• 2002 - The Persistence of Craft: The Applied Arts Now (principal author and editor), 100,000 words, 200 plates, London and New York, A&C Black, Rutgers.
• 2000 - Art Nouveau 1890-1914 (principal author and editor), 200,000 words, 400 plates, London and New York, V&A, Abrams, Gallimard French translation.
• 2000 - The Essential Art Nouveau, 10,000 words, 80 plates, London and New York, V&A and Abrams.
• 1993 - Quotations and Sources on Design and the Decorative Arts 1800-1990, 80,000 words, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
• 1990 - Modernism in Design (principal author and editor) 85,000 words, 65 plates, London, Reaktion, Japanese edition 1997.
• 1989 - Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World's Fairs, 1851–1939, 130,000 words, 20 plates, MUP.

Exhibitions[]

Greenhalgh has organised major temporary exhibitions, managing exhibition programmes and displaying permanent collections. As Head of Research at the Victoria & Albert Museum he had a leadership and academic role in both the V&A exhibition programme and various major collection displays. In 2000 he curated 'Art Nouveau 1890-1914', which travelled to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo. At the Corcoran Gallery, he created a large-scale exhibitions programme. These included Eadweard Muybridge; Richard Avedon’s Political Portraits; The American Evolution: Art and Society 1790 to the Present; The French Landscape: Realism to Modernism, 1840-1914; Re-Defined: Modern and Contemporary Works from the Permanent Collection. In 2011, the Corcoran simultaneously had two major exhibitions in London: John Singer Sargent and the Sea at the Royal Academy, and Edward Muybridge at Tate Britain. The Sainsbury Centre has a major exhibition programme.

Other positions and activities[]

2016 and ongoing - Advisory Council Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

2017 and ongoing - Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts;

2010 to 2015 - Chair of Art and Design in the British government's research audit, the Research Excellence Framework (REF)

2011 - 2016 - Chair of the Arts Advisory Committee at the University of Edinburgh

2001 and ongoing - Honorary Fellow of Research, V&A Museum, London.

References[]