We are delighted to announce that Griselda Pollock and Daniella Luxembourg have been awarded prestigious honours by The Courtauld Institute of Art in recognition of their outstanding contributions to visual arts.
Professor Griselda Pollock, a visual theorist, cultural analyst and scholar of international, postcolonial feminist studies in the visual arts, was awarded the degree of Hon. D. Lit. honoris causa of the University of London. Griselda is one of the most influential scholars of nineteenth-century, modern, avant-garde, postmodern and contemporary art. Born in South Africa, Griselda studied Modern History at Oxford, and the History of European Art at The Courtauld, receiving her PhD for her thesis Vincent van Gogh and Dutch Art. After teaching at Reading and Manchester Universities, Griselda moved to the University of Leeds in 1977 and was appointed to a Personal Chair in Social and Critical Histories of Art in 1990.
For over 40 years, Griselda has expanded the study and interpretation of art as a way to understand our societies, world histories and ourselves. Her work challenges the exclusion of women in mainstream models of art and art history and explores the social structures that cause this exclusion. Griselda is an academic of true distinction with a commitment to the broadest possible vision of art history. Her influence on the discipline has been immense globally.
Daniella Luxembourg, who has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Courtauld Institute of Art, is one of the leading figures in the international art world, and is renowned for her influence, judgement and passionate commitment to quality. Daniella studied art history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and enjoyed a formative early career in Israel’s museums before joining the Sotheby’s. She became deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s in Switzerland where in 1997 she started the successful private gallery de Pury & Luxembourg, having first been tempted back to the museum world as founding director of the Jewish Museum in Vienna.
In 2001, Daniella joined forces with the luxury goods company LVMH to establish the auction house Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg. In 2009 she co-founded the gallery Luxembourg & Dayan, which operates in New York and London. These galleries are deeply imprinted with her curatorial instincts and personality, alongside that of her daughter, Alma, a Courtauld alumna. Daniella has served for the past ten years on the Governing Board of The Courtauld, throughout which time she has contributed generously and creatively to the evolution of the institution.