Frances Spalding
British art historian (born 1950)
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Frances Spalding (née Crabtree; born 16 July 1950)[1][2] is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of The Burlington Magazine.
16 July 1950
Frances Spalding | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Frances Crabtree 16 July 1950 |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | University of Nottingham |
| Occupation | Art historian and writer |
Life
Frances Crabtree studied at the University of Nottingham and gained her PhD for a study of Roger Fry. She taught art history at Sheffield City Polytechnic (1978-1988) before becoming a freelance writer and curator.[2] She returned to academic work to take up the post of lecturer in art history at Newcastle University in 2000.[3] She was promoted to reader in 20th Century British Art in 2002 and appointed Professor of Art History in 2007.[3]
Spalding became the Editor of The Burlington Magazine in September 2015, leaving in August 2016.[4] From 2016 to 2018, she was a fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and an affiliate lecturer of the Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge.[3][5]
Spalding specialises in 20th-century British art, biography and cultural history and her work includes essays, criticism and reviews. She curated the 2003 exhibition John Piper in the 1930s: Abstraction on the Beach at Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London.[6] She has also written a study of poet Stevie Smith and a biography of John and Myfanwy Piper. When reviewing John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art, The Independent said of Spalding: "At her scintillating best, she is both a brilliant encapsulator and shrewd summer-up; above all, an enthusiast and advocate whose wisdom makes you eager for her subject."[7]
Spalding was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984.[8] She was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Birthday Honours 2005 for services to literature. She is a trustee of the Charleston Trust.[9]
In 1974, Crabtree married Julian Spalding; the couple divorced in 1991.[2]
Selected publications
- Magnificent Dreams: Burne-Jones and the Late Victorians (1978)
- Whistler (1979)
- Vanessa Bell (1979, ISBN 0 2977 8162 6)[10]
- Roger Fry: Art and Life (1980)
- — (2016) [1983]. Vanessa Bell: Portrait of the Bloomsbury Artist. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78453-241-3.
- British Art since 1900 (1986)
- Stevie Smith: A Critical Biography (1988)
- 20th Century Painters and Sculptors: Dictionary of British Art (1990)
- Dance Till the Stars Come Down: A Biography of John Minton (1991)
- Virginia Woolf: Paper Darts: the Illustrated Letters (ed) (1991)
- Duncan Grant: A Biography (1997)
- The Tate: A History (1998)
- Ravilious in Public: A Guide to Works by the Artist in Public Collections (2002)
- John Piper in the 1930s: Abstraction on the Beach (2003)
- Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family and Affections (2001)
- The Bloomsbury Group, National Portrait Gallery Insights (2005)
- John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art, Oxford University Press (2009, ISBN 978-0-19-956761-4)[7]
Reviews
- Spalding, Frances (June 2011). "The contemporaneous past: reviving native traditions, in modern ways". Australian Book Review. 332: 16–17.
- Review of: Harris, Alexandra (2010). Romantic moderns: English writers, artists and the imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500251713.