Julian Spalding

Author and curator

Julian Spalding is a controversial author and curator. One of the world’s most outspoken critics, he has been labelled both controversial and a maverick, remaining fiercely independent in his opinions. He began his professional career as an art assistant at the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, and went on to hold a series of senior positions, as keeper and director at museums and galleries across the country and internationally.

Spalding has sat on and chaired numerous arts committees, and from 1996 to 2005, he was master of John Ruskin's Guild of St George. In 1983, Spalding was awarded a Fellowship by the Museums Association (FMA) in recognition of his professional contribution and commitment to enhancing British museums. In the wake of his directorship of Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums, he was awarded the Lord Provost's Prize for Services to the Visual Arts in Glasgow in 1999. Amongst his other works, he is the author of the influential The Eclipse of Art: Tackling the Crisis in Art Today (2003) and The Art of Wonder: The History of Seeing (2005), for which he was awarded the 2006 Bannister Fletcher Prize.