Julian Spalding

Julian Spalding is an art writer and expert on museums and their role in the modern world: his forthright and original views have made him a controversial figure. For thirty years he worked as a museum and gallery curator, in charge of the civic collections of Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow. Here, he directed a total of twelve museums (including the famous Burrell Collection) and established the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art as a radical rethinking of what modern art is. One of his books, The Art of Wonder - A History of Seeing, won the Banister Fletcher Award as the best art history book of 2006.