Anna Gray b. 1947

Also known as Anne Mary Gilmer Gray
  • Curator
Anna Gray is the Head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia. Originally from Western Australia she has been critical in bringing the art of that state into the national narrative. She has also made a major contribution to a wider understanding of Australian art on the cusp of the 20th century.
Tags: Western Australian art, Edwardian art, Exhibitions by Australian artists at war

Anne (Anna) Gray was born in Western Australia. After school at St Hilda’s in Perth, she initially was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for University and completed n honours degree in philosophy at the University of Western Australia. She tutored at both Curtin and the University of Western Australia while completing a Master of Arts in Aesthetics, and on completion of her degree was awarded the Winifred Cullis Grant by the Interntiona Federation of University Women. This enabled her to travel to UK where, in 1974 she sidestepped an academic trajectory to work as an arts officer for the East Staffordshire District Council.
On her return to Perth in 1976 she was employed as an education officer for the Art Gallery of Western Australia. These were years of flux, and conflict, at the AGWA, and her scholarly background enabled her to blur the difference between public programs and researching scholarly exhibitions.
In 1980 she was appointed Curator of pre-1939 Art at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and in 1984 became Head of Art at the War Memorial.At the same time she embarked on her PhD in Fine Arts (art history) at the University of Melbourne, engaging in an in depth study of the work of George Lambert.
In 1995, the same year she graduated with her PhD, Dr Gray was appointed Director of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the University of Western Australia. Here she was able to use her position to create a lively series of exhibitions linking Western Australian artists to the rest of the country.
In 2001 she was appointed Head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The NGA had experienced a particularly troubled period, and her strong scholarship as well as her inclusive approach was greatly appreciated by her fellow curators. She has been responsible for a number of major exhibitions at the NGA, including _George Lambert _and The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires. She was also a major contributor to the Australia exhibition that was shown at the Royal Academy in London in 2013.

Writers:

Joanna Mendelssohn
Date written:
2015
Last updated:
2015