Xavier Bray, the chief curator at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, has been appointed the new director of the Wallace Collection in London. He replaces Christoph Vogtherr who will take up the post of director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle in October.
Between 2000 and 2002, Bray was the curator of paintings at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. He then became the assistant curator of 17th- and 18th-century European paintings at London’s National Gallery, where in 2009, he organised The Sacred Made Real, an exhibition that paired Spanish religious paintings and sculptures. For an exhibition of Goya’s portraits at the National Gallery last winter, guest curator Bray secured hard-to-get loans from private and public collections in Spain (the show drew 185,997 visitors).
The scholar joined Dulwich Picture Gallery in early 2011, where he organised the Making Discoveries: Dutch and Flemish Masterpieces series, juxtaposed Van Dyck’s self-portrait with two works by the UK artist Mark Wallinger.
In an interview with the Art Fund charity last year, Bray said: “The first challenge for a curator is an intellectual one. You have to present new art historical ideas but without sounding like you are lecturing the public. The second challenge is borrowing works from places that don’t usually lend. You may need those works to make certain visual points without which the story will be lost.”
He also described the critically panned Soundscapes show, which was held at the National Gallery last summer, as a recent highlight, saying: “Six sound artists and musicians were invited to compose new work in response to a painting they chose from the collection… It was a truly transcendental experience and an exciting new direction for exhibitions at the National Gallery.”
The Wallace Collection is a national museum, which houses paintings dating from the 14th to the mid 19th century by artists such as Titian, Rembrandt and Vélazquez. The works were bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, the widow of Sir Richard Wallace, in 1897.
António Horta Osório, the chairman of the Wallace Collection, says: “I look forward to welcoming Dr Bray and to working with him as we continue to ensure the financial stability of the museum.”
