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Christopher Le Brun

Ethics & the Arts, Truth, Culture, Painting, Arts Organizations And Much More

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Christopher Le Brun On Ethical Decision-making and Culture
Christopher Le Brun On Artists' Ethical Responsibility and Authenticity
Christopher Le Brun On Painting and Human Touch and Humanity
Christopher Le Brun On Ethical Arts as a Noble Aim and the Commercial Side of Art
Christopher Le Brun On Eliminating Art History from Secondary School Curriculum
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Interview Description

Christopher Le Brun was elected the 26th President of the Royal Academy in 2011, after Sir Joshua Reynolds. He is the youngest President since Lord Leighton in 1878. He is also a painter, sculptor and printmaker.

His work is in many major museum collections including Tate, Museum of Modern Art New York, British Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Victoria & Albert Museum, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and The Whitworth. Following his exhibition at Friedman Benda, in New York September 2014 both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale Center for British Art acquired paintings for their collections.

Trained at the Slade and Chelsea Schools of Art in London, Christopher was a double prizewinner at the John Moores Liverpool exhibitions (1978 & 1980) and shortly thereafter began to appear in many group exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale (1980) and the influential Zeitgeist (1982) at Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin. He has subsequently exhibited extensively in Britain, Europe and worldwide, and lived and worked in Berlin during 1987 -1988 as a guest of the DAAD artist’s program.

Between 1990 and 2005 he served as a trustee of the Tate, the National Gallery and Dulwich Picture Gallery. During this time he was involved in the radical developments of Tate at Bankside, Liverpool and St. Ives, as well as the masterplan and re-development of the east wing of the National Gallery. He was one of the founding trustees of the Royal Drawing School, which he helped to establish in London in 2000. In the same year he was elected the first Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy.

Christopher’s public monumental sculptures have been installed in London: (Union (horse with two discs) at the Museum of London and City Wing on the site of the former stock exchange at Threadneedle Street). (The Monument to Victor Hugo on the quayside in St Helier, Jersey). His most recent major sculpture Maro was shown at Chatsworth in the Beyond Limits exhibition.

Welcome to my conversation with Mr. Christopher Le Brun.

Our gratitude to the Royal Academy of Arts and the SCALA Group Picture Library for granting permission to use their images in this interview.