‘Maker of exhibitions’: the curatorial practice of Cordelia Oliver

Abstract

ABSTRACT The artist, critic and curator Cordelia Oliver (1923–2009) was an integral figure in the cultural life of Scotland from the late 1950s to her death in 2009. A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Oliver gave up her career as a painter to become a freelance critic and curator, a dual role which allowed a unique perspective on the production and reception of contemporary art from Scotland over five decades. Her curatorial work aimed to showcase and develop the reputation of Scottish art in a British and international context. A member of the Scottish Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain (later the Scottish Arts Council) and a founding member of Glasgow's Third Eye Centre, Oliver curated a large number of exhibitions throughout the 1970s and 1980s which reveal an implicit yet sustained effort to foreground and champion art by women. A close associate of the gallerist Richard Demarco, she contributed to projects which introduced avant-garde, experimental and cross-disciplinary practices to the relatively staid art institutions of 1970s and ‘80s Scotland. This article focuses on Oliver's activities as a ‘maker of exhibitions’ as an artist-curator and a polymathic ‘participant observer’ of the artists she critiqued and exhibited.