Lead curator of the National Gallery, London, to speak at Randolph College

Susanna Avery-Quash

Susanna Avery-Quash, lead curator at the National Gallery, London, will present a public lecture at Randolph College at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6, in Wimberly Recital Hall.

“Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look: Reflecting on 200 years of fruitful encounters between living artists and the National Gallery” will offer a brief overview of activities celebrating the National Gallery’s bicentenary this year before considering in detail the exhibition she curated there, Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look.

The exhibit, which opened in August and remains on display until October, sheds light on the relationship between living artists and the National Gallery over the last 200 years—and how displaying the collection for free to inspire artistic encounters and creativity has always been and remains a fundamental aim.

Avery-Quash has worked at the National Gallery for over a quarter of a century.

She is in charge of pre-1900 objects in its Contextual Collection and responsible for activities associated with its research strands: “Buying, Collecting and Display,” “Art and Religion,” and the Women and the Arts Forum.

Her research focuses on the study of important private and public art collections, trends in artistic taste, and the historical art market; she has also published much on the Gallery’s first director, Sir Charles Eastlake.

Avery-Quash was a foundational trustee of The Society for the History of Collecting and The International Art Market Studies Association and currently serves on the board of the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund.

She is a specialist volunteer for the National Trust and has enjoyed Honorary Research Fellowships at Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Buckingham’s Humanities Research Institute.