Robin Warwick Gibson (3 May 1944 – 9 August 2010) was a British gallery curator and art historian best known for his work at the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

in London between 1968 and 2001, including eight years as Chief Curator. He was responsible for many innovations in the management of the gallery and published a number of significant academic works on the gallery's collections during his career.

Life

Gibson was born in 1944 near

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

and educated at Wychcrest Preparatory School and at New College Choir School Oxford, the

Royal Masonic School The Royal Masonic School for Girls (RMS) is an independent school in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, with day and boarding pupils. The school was instituted in 1788, with the aim of caring for the daughters of poor Freemasons. In 1978, ...

before reading Modern Languages and a second degree in Fine Arts at

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

. After a brief period at the

Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

, Gibson joined the

as an assistant curator in 1968 and was almost immediately involved in the establishment of the photographic department, the role of which he would significantly develop and expand during his career. In 1975 he was involved in the establishment of Montacute House as an outstation of the Gallery. In 1983, Gibson became curator of twentieth century collections and reinvigorated the collections by expanding the use of photography, contemporary sculpture and film in the gallery's collections and redesigning many of the galleries. He also began the practice of commissioning paintings of living figures by contemporary artists, stating that "Representational painting is not so central any more to current artistic concerns: there is not the same social structure, nor the patrons to encourage the artists. We are much more interested in the psychological aspect of portraiture now." This occasionally led him into controversy, such as when the gallery's board of trustees rejected a portrait of Alan Bennett by Tom Wood in 1992 to the embarrassment of all concerned. In 1994, Gibson was made Chief Curator and remained in post until 2001. In 2000 he curated ' Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000', writing the book, with an introduction by

Norbert Lynton Norbert Casper Lynton (22 September 1927 – 30 October 2007, Brighton, England ) was Professor of the History of Art at the University of Sussex. From 1998 - 2006 he was Chairman of the Charleston Trust. He has published on architecture ...

that accompanied the exhibition. He published numerous reference works on art history, including examinations of animals in portraiture and several studies of painting in the twentieth century, and contributed to the

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, Folio, The Independent, Modern Painters & the Museums Journal. Gibson settled in Hempstead, Essex and became involved with the

Fry Art Gallery The Fry Art Gallery is an art gallery in Saffron Walden, Essex. Recognised as an Accredited Museum by Arts Council England, it displays work by artists of national significance who lived or worked in North West Essex during the twentieth centu ...

. He was a keen gardener, cook and amateur composer, pianist and organist. He was predeceased by his partner of over 40 years, Tom Gligoroff, repetiteur and pianist. Gibson was survived by his sister Hilary Gibson and his second recent partner, Hitesh Mistry.

Books and catalogues

*''Catalogue of exhibition of paintings from the Collection of Dr. D. M. McDonald'', foreword by Roy Strong, 1970 *''British Portrait Painters, by Robin Gibson and Keith Roberts '', 1971 *''The Masque of beauty'', National Portrait Gallery, 1972 *''Flower Painting'', 1976 *''The Clarendon Collection'', Paul Mellon Centre, 1977 *''20th Century Portraits'', 1978 *''Glyn Philpot'', 1984 *''William Roberts, an artist and his family'', 1984 *''John Bellany : new portraits'', the Maxi/Hudson Collection, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1986 *''Glyn Philpot, 1884–1937: Edwardian Aesthete to Thirties Modernist'', National Portrait Gallery, London 1986 *''Paolozzi portraits'', with an essay by Robin Spencer, National Portrait Gallery, 1988 *''Lewis Morley photographer of the sixties'', foreword by Robin Gibson, with essays by Terence Pepper and David Mellor, National Portrait Gallery, 1989 *Contemporary Poets, Portraits By Peter Edwards, A National portrait Gallery Exhibition, 1990. Foreword by Robin Gibson Curator 20th Century Collection. The ISBN printed in the document (0855140314) is invalid, causing a checksum error. *''Madame Yevonde : Colour, fantasy and myth'', by Robin Gibson and Pam Roberts, 1990 *''John Bratby Portraits'', 1991 *''

The Portrait Now The Portrait Now was an exhibition of contemporary portraiture held in 1993 to 1994 at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Among many others it included portraits by Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Tony Bevan, Chuck Close, Ji ...

'', 1993 *'' The Sitwells'', 1994 * ''Glenys Barton'' by Adrian Flowers, Robin Gibson, Edward Lucie-Smith; foreword by Charles Saumarez Smith; introduction by Robert Heller, 1997 * ''Michael Taylor'' by Robin Gibson, 1997 * ''

Panayiotis Kalorkoti Panayiotis Kalorkoti (born 11 April 1957, Cyprus) is a British artist. He works primarily in acrylics and watercolour, and has also produced drawings, etchings, screenprints, lithographs and monotypes. His work is figurative and features bri ...

: heads, faces and figures'', catalogue essay by Robin Gibson, 1998. *''The Face in the Corner'', 1998; new edition: ''Pets in Portraits'', introduction by Chris Packham, 2015 *'' Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000'', 2000 *''Stephen Finer : paintings'', 2004

Notes

External links

Painting the Century

Publications in the National Art Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Robin Warwick 1944 births British art historians Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge 2010 deaths English LGBT people People associated with the National Portrait Gallery Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at the Royal Masonic School for Boys