Ronald Warwick Radford (born 3 December 1949) is an Australian curator, who was the Director of the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

(NGA) from 2004 until 2014. He was previously the Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. He was born in

Warragul Warragul is a town in Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne. Warragul lies between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range to the north. As of the , the town had a population of 19,8 ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and studied at

Scotch College, Melbourne (For God, for Country, and for Learning) , established = , type = Independent, day and boarding , gender = Boys , denomination = Presbyterian , slogan = , ...

, the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

and RMIT University. He was an education officer at the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

in 1971 and 1972. He was director of the

Ballarat Fine Art Gallery The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. Established in 1884 as the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery by the citizens of Ballarat, both the building and part of its collection is listed on the Victorian H ...

from 1973 to 1980, a position previously held by the founding director of the NGA, James Mollison. From 1980 to 1988 he was curator of European and Australian Paintings and Sculpture at the Art Gallery of South Australia. As director between 1991 and 2004, he built up the collection of Australian art, particularly from the Colonial period, developed a strong holding in Asian art and expanded the Renaissance collection. Radford has announced his intention to lend out Old Masters (European art, prior to the 19th century) for long-term display to state galleries. He considers the collection of less than 30 paintings, put together by Mollison to give context to the modern collection, as too small to make any impact on the public. He has been quoted as saying that the gallery should concentrate on its strengths—European Art of the first half of the 20th century, 20th-century American art, photography, Asian art and the 20th-century drawing collection, and to fill the gaps in the Australian collection.

Publications

Radford has written a number of books on art, mainly exhibition guides, including:
Art Gallery of South Australia * ''Recent Aboriginal Painting incorporating the Maude Vizard-Wholohan''. Art Prize Purchase Awards 1988, Art Gallery of South Australia (1988), * ''

Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe ...

'', Art Gallery of South Australia (1996) * ''The William Bowmore Collection: The Fine Art of Giving'', Art Gallery of South Australia (1999), * ''Our Country: Australian Federation Landscapes 1900-1914'', Art Gallery of South Australia (2001) * ''19th Century Australian Art - M.J.M. Carter Collection'', Art Gallery of South Australia (1993),

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radford, Ron 1949 births Living people Australian curators Directors of the National Gallery of Australia RMIT University alumni University of Melbourne alumni People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne Members of the Order of Australia Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Recipients of the Centenary Medal People from Warragul