Henry Meyric Hughes
Curator, writer on art and consultant
Curator, writer on art and consultant
Roles and Positions. Hon. President of AICA (Paris) (President, 2002-8) and past President of AICA UK. Special Adviser for Council of Europe exhibitions. Advisory Board, Archives de la critique d’art, Rennes; DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague; Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA), London; Matt’s Gallery, London; Arnolfini, Bristol (to 2014); Chair, biennial Chinese-British Critics’ Awards; Advisory Council for AICA, Paris; Chair of the Committee for the Archives and Living Memory; Committee member for Publications and Congresses.
Past experience With British Council in Berlin, Lima, Paris, Milan and London, 1968-92. Director, Visiting Arts (1984-6) and Director, Visual Arts Department, British Council (1986-92). British Commissioner for the Venice Biennale (Auerbach, Cragg, Kapoor, Hamilton; 6 British Architects) and São Paulo Bienal. Exhibitions incl. Moore in New Delhi, Caro in Rome, Bacon in Moscow, Freud in US and numerous exhibitions of young British artists in Japan, E. Europe, etc.. Director, Hayward Gallery, incl. National Touring Exhibitions and the Arts Council Collection, 1992-6. Exhibitions incl. Gravity and Grace (sculpture of the 1960s and ‘70s); Unbound: Possibilities of Painting; Dalí: The Early Years; Yves Klein; The Epic and the Everyday (contemporary photographic art), Bonnard at Le Bosquet (NACF Award); The British Art Show 4 (and tour). Co-founder of Manifesta, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art (1993) and first President of the Board (1996-2007) (held in Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Frankfurt, San Sebastian, Nicosia [cancelled], Bolzano/Trento). Advisory boards for Museums and Kunsthallen, incl. Bologna, Budapest, Göteborg, Porto Alegre, Rennes, Vienna.
Educational Tutor, course for young curators from Central and Eastern Europe, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2002 President of jury for Diploma Examinations, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 2003-4 External Examiner, MA Course, Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London, 2010-13
Juries Biennales: Cetinje, Caribbean (Dominican Republic), Dakar, Gwangju Prizes: Turner, London; Manchester Art Prize; Botho-Graef-Preis, Jena; Premio Furla, Bologna; John Moores Critics Awards, Shanghai/Liverpool
(Co-)curatorial projects (selection) Kunst Europa ( various venues), Germany, 1991 Europe Unknown, Krakow, 1991 The Spirit of Romanticism in German Art 1790-1990 (Edinburgh, London, Munich), 1994-5 23rd Council of Europe exhibition (commissioner), Art and Power. Europe under the Dictators 1930-1945 (London, Berlin, Barcelona (1995-6) Das Zeitalter der Moderne/The Age of Modernism. Art in the Twentieth Century (associate curator) (Berlin 1999) Private Face-Urban Space. A New Generation of Artists from Britain (Athens, Rethymnon, 1996-7) Blast to Freeze. British Art in the Age of Extremes (Wolfsburg, Toulouse, 2002-3) Plus que vrai (young French artists), Paris, 2004 Cypriot Pavilion (Nikos Charalambidis), Venice Biennale, 2004 grense_løs/bound_less (Norwegian Contemporary Art), Oslo and tour, 2005-6 Prague Triennale (Pavel Büchler), 2008 XXX Council of Europe exhibition, Verführung Freiheit. Kunst in Europa seit 1945/The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945 (Berlin, Tallinn, Milan, 2012-3) (Krakow, Thessaloniki, Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Prague, Zagreb, Brussels, 2014-5), 2012-15.
Publications and articles (selection) Former contributing editor, Tema Celeste; contributions to Times Higher Education Supplement, The Burlington Magazine, Critique d’art, etc.
‘La Casa’, in La casa, il corpo, il cuore, ex. cat., Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna 1999 ‘Were we looking away? – The Reception in the West of Art from Central and East Central Europe in the Cold War’, in Aspects/Positions. 50 Years of Art in Central Europe 1949-1959, ex. cat.(Engl. and Ger. eds., 2 vols.), Vienna 1999 ‘Répondre, s’il vous plaît’, in Il Dono/The Gift, Milan 2001 ‘The Seeds of Romanticism and some of its Tendrils’ and ‘Laudatio to Mariele Neudecker’, in IMAGINATION-Romantik Ger./Engl.), Jena, 2001 The Age of Modernism. Art in the Twentieth Century, ex. cat. (Ger/Engl.), co-ed. HMH, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1999 ‘The Oft Disconcerting Future of Romantic Art’, in Ungleichzeitigkeiten der europäischen Romantik, Stiftung der Romantik, Starnberg, 2002 Blast to Freeze. British Art in the Age of Extremes, ex. cat. (Ger./Engl.), co-ed. , Ostfildern-Ruit, 2002 ‘When East was East and West was West: Art Attitudes in the Cold War’, with responses by Viktor Misiano and Iara Bubnova, in The Manifesta Decade, Brussels, 2005 ‘Sul curare’, for Curare l’arte, ed. Chiara Bertola, Milan, 2008 ‘Drawing the Line Short: Exhibiting in a Contested Space’, Manifesta Journal of Contemporary Curating no. 5, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2008 ‘The Critic Laughs’, in Krytyka I rynek Sztuki/Art Criticism and the Market, Warsaw, 2008 No Borders (Just N.E.W.S.), ex. cat., ed. Ramon Tio Bellido and HMH, Paris, 2008 From Art School to Professional Practice, ed. Ramon Tio Bellido and HMH, Paris, 2008 ‘Pierre Restany: Networks’ and ‘Pierre Restany: AICA and the East European Adventure’, in Le Demi-siècle de Pierre Restany, co-ed. INHA/Editions des Cendres, Paris, 2009 African Contemporary Art: Critical Concerns / Art contemporain africain: regards critiques (book), ed. Henry Meyric Hughes and Ramon Tio Bellido, 2011 ‘The History and Significance of the Biennale, as an Instrument of Globalisation’, in ABCA Conference Proceedings (in Portuguese), Brazil, São Paulo, 2009 ‘Shifting Perspectives and Strategic Realignments. Looking afresh at Art in Europe since 1945’, in Different Modernisms, Different Avant-Gardes. Problems in Central and East European Art after World War II. Proceedings of the Art Museum of Estonia. Tallinn, KUMU, 2009 ‘A Crítica de Arte Amadurece: Brasília, AICA e o Congresso Extraordinário de 1959’, in Cidade Nova: Síntese das Artes, DOCOMOMO-Rio, 2009. ‘AICA in the Age of Globalisation’ (book, incl. essay by HMH with same title), transl. and co-ed.(with Ramon Tio Bellido) by HMH, Paris, 2010 XXX Council of Europe exhibition, The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945, ex.cat. and e-book (Engl. edtns.), ed. and co-trans. John Moores Critics Awards 2012 (Engl./Chinese), co-ed., with essay by HMH, Shanghai, 2013 ‘Vojin Bakic, the Path to International Recognition’, in Vojin Bakic. Lightbearing Forms, Zagreb, 2014 Jesa Denegri ,The New Art in Yugoslavia 1950-1980. Selected Critical Essays, ed. HMH ( forthcoming), 2014
International conferences, seminars and colloquia (co-convenor) AICA seminars on contemporary art in Addis Ababa, Athens, Barcelona, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dakar, Dublin, Paris, Valencia AICA Congresses (as President) in Barcelona/Valencia, Ljubljana, Martinique, Paris, Taipei, São Paulo Cold War Modern 1945-1970, Council of Europe conference with Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2008 The European Idea in Art and Art History, Council of Europe symposium (forthcoming), Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin, September 2014
Decorations Silver Medal for International Cultural Relations, Czechoslovakia, 1986 Officier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French Government, 1997 Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Location
Website
http://N.A