Ron Radford (born 3 December 1949) has been the Director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) since 2004. He was previously the Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.
He was born in Victoria and studied at Scotch College, Melbourne, Melbourne University and RMIT University. He was an education officer at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1971 and 1972. He was Director of the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery 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.
He has been described as "a boisterous, larger than life bon vivant with a wicked sense of humour and an easy ability to dissolve potential conflict with light-heartedness".[1]
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. [2]
Radford has written a number of books on art, mainly exhibition guides, including:[3]
| Cultural offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Brian Kennedy |
Director of the National Gallery of Australia 2004 – present |
Incumbent |