Curators in conversation: Looking at Spanish Old Masters Today

About

Discussing the lasting influence of Spanish Old Masters in contemporary arts practice. This event is part of Spain NOW! - celebrating the 10th anniversary of the season of contemporary arts and culture in London. 

Michael Petry studied at Rice University, Houston (BA), London Guildhall University (MA), and has a Doctor in Arts from Middlesex University. Petry is an artist, author and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) London. Petry co-founded the Museum of Installation, was Guest Curator at the Kunstakademiet, Oslo, and was Curator of the Royal Academy Schools Gallery. Petry co-authored Installation Art (1994), and Installation in the New Millennium (2003), and authored Abstract Eroticism (1996) and A Thing of Beauty is...(1997), The Trouble with Michael. His book Hidden Histories: 20th century male same sex lovers in the visual arts (2004) was the first comprehensive survey of its kind, and accompanied Hidden Histories which he curated for The New Art Gallery Walsall. Golden Rain (2008) accompanied his installation for the On the Edge exhibition for Stavanger 2008, European Capital of Culture. Petry was the first Artist in Residence at Sir John Soane’s Museum (2010/11) and his one man show The Touch of the Oracle at the Palm Springs Art Museum (2012) was accompanied by a ten year career review book. Petry’s work was included in the 2015 Frontiers Reimagined at the Venice Biennale, and his one-man show AT the Core of the Algorithm accompanied his Campbell Lectures at Rice University. Petry's books include The Art of Not Making: The New Artist Artisan Relationship (2011), Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition (2013) and The WORD is ART (2018).

Nicola Jennings is Director of the Colnaghi Foundation and Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She completed her MA and doctorate at the Courtauld, and has worked at the National Gallery and City University in London. Her research and publications focus on art and patronage in Spain in the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with a particular interest in northern European artists working in Iberia, conversos, and polychrome sculpture. She is a co-author of the first two volumes in the Coll & Cortés Studies series, Lorenzo Mercadante: Virgen del Buen Fin, and Alonso Berruguete: Renaissance Sculptor.