Brian STEWART

Brian STEWART
1953
2010

The late Brian Stewart was an enthusiast for art and promoting it in the community, locally, nationally and internationally. A great friend to many, and a loyal friend to Cornish art and art history, his contribution to the Falmouth Art Gallery as its Curator and Director since 2000 is unparalleled in its own history (est 1978).

Stewart was born in Dagenham, Essex, the son of a general medical practitioner and his wife. After an education diploma, he worked in the Old Masters department of Christie's, London for two years. After an art history degree at Canterbury Christ Church College, he became the art and exhibitions officer of Canterbury Museums for a nine year period.  In 2000 he came to Falmouth, and since that time the Gallery has grown exponentially in stature, winning The Guardian's Family Friendly Museum Prize in 2006. The sub-title of his Times obituary gives the flavour of the man: 'Curator of Falmouth Art Gallery who exhibited Picasso and Matisse alongside local artists and encouraged children to be creative'.

Above all, he was inclusive, open-hearted, appreciative of all creative efforts, and a direct inspiration to all he met.

media

 

works and access

 

exhibitions

2000-2010: Curator & organiser, annual exhibition programme (solo and group shows); 

2004: Curator: 'Surrealists on Holiday', with book by R Penrose

 

memberships

 

misc further info

 

references

B Stewart and Mervyn Cutten (1997) Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920

Hoyle, H (Oct 2011 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Louise Connell at Falmouth Art Gallery'

Hoyle, H (Feb 2012 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Grace Gardner - a life in abstraction'

Obituaries: Times (13 Jan 2011), p59