James Birch (curator)

James Birch is an English art dealer, curator and gallery owner. He is best known for his innovative championing of British art, in particular for exhibiting Francis Bacon in Moscow, in the then USSR, in 1988, and Gilbert & George in Moscow in 1990, and in Beijing and Shanghai in 1993.[1][2][3]

James Birch (curator)

Life and career

Birch was born in London in c. 1956. His parents were artists, and he had a brother and sister, both older than him.[4] He was educated at the University of Aix-en-Provence, where he studied Art History, before training in the Old Master department of Christie's Fine Art in London where he later established the 1950s Rock & Roll department.[5]

In 1983 he opened his first gallery, James Birch Fine Art, on the King's Road, London, where he specialised in the work of British surrealists such as John Banting, Eileen Agar, Conroy Maddox and Grace Pailthorpe, the Symbolist and magician Austin Osman Spare and the artist and muse Luciana Martinez de la Rosa.[6][7]

In 1984 Birch gave the Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry his first show, with a second quickly following in 1985. Perry was a founding member of the Neo-Naturist cabaret with Jennifer Binnie, who Birch had previously exhibited.[8][9] In 1986 Birch was photographed by Jane England, who included his portrait in her book on 1970s and 1980s subculture in London, Turn and Face the Strange.[10] James Birch Fine Art closed in 1986 and in 1987 Birch opened Birch and Conran Fine Art in Soho, London in association with Paul Conran.[11]

Birch then concentrated on exhibiting Gilbert & George in Moscow in 1990 and Beijing in 1993.[12] The broadcaster and author Daniel Farson wrote the book With Gilbert & George in Moscow (Bloomsbury, 1991) about the Moscow exhibition.[13] Farson also recounted the Francis Bacon (artist) exhibition in Moscow in his biography of Bacon, The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon (Pantheon, 1993).[14]

In 1997 Birch returned to exhibiting in London when he opened the A22 Gallery in Clerkenwell, where he showed Keith Coventry, the photographer Dick Jewell, Breyer P-Orridge and two exhibitions by members of The Colony Room.[15][16]

In an article titled 'The Pimpernel Curator', the July 2011 issue of f22 magazine credited Birch with having created some of the 'most imaginative exhibitions of the last twenty years'.[17]

Away from curating, in 2010 Dewi Lewis published Birch's Babylon: Surreal Babies. The book presented Birch's collection of bizarre postcards of babies that were produced in the early 20th century and included a foreword by George Melly[18][19]

In 2017 Birch collaborated with the author and counterculture writer Barry Miles to produce a book and exhibition charting the history of the British underground press of the 1960s entitled The British Underground Press of the Sixties. The exhibition was held at Birch's own A22 Gallery in Clerkenwell, London.[20][21]

Birch regularly lends art works to art institutions and galleries for major and small scale exhibitions. Some of the recent ones include; Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years at The Holburne Museum Bath (24 January - 25 May 2020) [22][23], Modern Couples Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde at Barbican Art Gallery (10 Oct 2018—27 Jan 2019),[24] A Tale of Mother’s Bones: Grace Pailthorpe, Reuben Mednikoff and the Birth of Psychorealism a travelling show presented at the De La Warr Pavilion, (6 October 2018 – 20 January 2019),[25] the Camden Arts Centre, (12 April – 23 June 2019)[26] and the Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange (19 October 2019 - 4 January 2020),[27] Dear Christine at Vane, Newcastle, (1-29 June 2019) ArthouseSE1, London, (2-29 February 2020)[28]

Birch's book Bacon in Moscow was published in January 2021 by Cheerio Publishing. It is a memoir of his instigating Francis Bacon's exhibition in Moscow in 1988. Grayson Perry described it as "[a] rollicking cultural adventure. Fascinating and true."[29] It received positive reviews in The Times,[30] The Guardian,[31] The Art Newspaper,[32] The Spectator,[33] and was The Observer's book of the week, Hatchards' February non-fiction book of the month, and The Guardian's audio book of the week.

Notable exhibitions
  • "Them" at the Redfern Gallery, January 2020, London [34][35][36][37][38]
  • The British Underground Press of the Sixties with Barry Miles, A22 Gallery, 2018, London[39]
  • Gilbert and George (Beijing and Shanghai Museums, People's Republic of China, 1993)[40]
  • Christine Keeler: My Life in Pictures (The Mayor Gallery, London 2010)[41]
  • Elena Khudiakova: In Memoriam (Dadiani Fine Art, 2015)[42][43]

References
  1. "Jonathan Cooper, "Bacon's extraordinary legacy," London Evening Standard, 7 March 2003".
  2. "Andrew Solomon, "Their Irony, Humor (and Art) Can Save China," New York Times, 19 December 1993" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  3. The Moscow Times, "New Bacon Exhibit to Come to Moscow in 2014", ' 'The Moscow Times' ', 28 August 2014
  4. Birch, James (2022). Bacon in Moscow. Cheerio Publishing. pp. 9–11. ISBN 978 1 78816 9745.
  5. Mike Von Joel, "The Pimpernel Curator", ' 'f22' ', July 2011
  6. Dick Jewell, "Luciana PV", Vimeo, March 2017
  7. Mike Von Joel, "The Pimpernel Curator", f22, July 2011
  8. Grayson Perry, "Letting it all hang out: my life as a naked artist," The Times, 20 June 2007
  9. "The anarchic 80s art group who paired nudity with body paint". Dazed. 15 July 2016.
  10. Ellie Howard, , ' 'Dazed' ', January 2017
  11. "Saatchi Gallery". www.saatchigallery.com.
  12. "Elena Khudiakova, artist - obituary". 1 July 2015 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  13. "Hunt for dead author Dan Farson's life of the artists". The Independent. 11 January 1998.
  14. Mention in Francis Bacon's Book Revelations
  15. Gleadell, Colin (18 October 2001). "Artists' colony" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  16. "artnet.com Magazine Reviews - London Calling". www.artnet.com.
  17. "Carla Borel, July 2011". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012.
  18. Rick Poynor, "Surrealism in the Pre-School Years", ' 'Design Observer' ', December 2010
  19. Mark Sinclair, "Surrealist Babies", ' 'Creative Review' ', 14 December 2010
  20. Kathryn Bromwich, "Covering the Counterculture", The Guardian, 23 September 2017
  21. Spectator Life, 'The 60s Underground Press Revisited', The Spectator, September 2017
  22. "Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years". The Holburne Museum. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  23. "Grayson Perry collaborations and pansexual pageants: James Birch reflects on a fabulous life". www.theartnewspaper.com. 3 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  24. "Modern Couples | Barbican". www.barbican.org.uk.
  25. "A TALE OF MOTHER'S BONES: GRACE PAILTHORPE, REUBEN MEDNIKOFF AND THE BIRTH OF PSYCHOREALISM".
  26. "A Tale of Mother's Bones: Grace Pailthorpe, Reuben Mednikoff and the Birth of Psychorealism - What's On - Camden Arts Centre". www.camdenartscentre.org. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019.
  27. "A Tale Of Mother's Bones - showing across both Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange". Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  28. "Dear Christine".
  29. "Bacon In Moscow".
  30. "The Times review".
  31. "The Guardian review".
  32. "The Art Newspaper review".
  33. "The Spectator review".
  34. "THEM - Duggie Fields, Derek Jarman, Andrew Logan, Luciana Martinez, Kevin Whitney - Works". The Redfern Gallery. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  35. Petridis, Alexis (4 February 2020). "'They weren't just ponces!' – how Them glammed up boring Britain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  36. Gosling, Emily (20 January 2020). "Brit Glam: The Groundbreaking Queer Artists Who Redefined Camp". ELEPHANT. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  37. Revely-Calder, Cal (23 January 2020). "Partying and painting through the three-day week: the forgotten glamour of Britain's 1970s art scene". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  38. Gleadell, Colin (14 January 2020). "Inside the collection of the British art dealer who discovered Grayson Perry, sold Christine Keeler's letters, and loves to upset the status quo". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  39. "British Underground Press".
  40. Solomon, Andrew (19 December 1993). "Their Irony, Humor (and Art) Can Save China". The New York Times.
  41. Brown, Mark; correspondent, arts (21 July 2010). "Unseen Christine Keeler pictures to go on show". The Guardian.
  42. Orton, Karen (9 September 2015). "Elena Khudiakova's Glamorous Soviet Nostalgia". AnOther.
  43. "In Memoriam: Elena Khudiakova". Wall Street International. 13 August 2015.
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