Basil Gray

Basil Gray
CB
Born 1904
Kensington, London, England
Died 10 June 1989
Oxford
Nationality British
Occupation Head of British Museum’s Oriental department
Known for Art historian

Basil Gray CB, CBE, FBA (1904 – 1989), was an art historian, Islamicist, author, and the head of the British Museum’s Oriental department.

Early life

Basil Gray was born in 1904 at Kensington, the son to Charles Gray and Florence Elworthy Cowell. His father was a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon. He attended Bradfield College and in the 1920s studied at New College, Oxford.[1]

Career

Following graduation in 1927 Gray travelled to the Schönbrunn Palace and Osterreichisches Museum in Vienna to view Mughal painting.[2] While in Vienna he studied under Josef Strzygowski, and developed a friendship with Otto Demus, art historian and Byzantinist.[1] Following this he worked with art historian David Talbot Rice at the British Academy excavations of the palace of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople.[2]

On his return to England he joined in 1930 the Sub-Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, under Laurence Binyon, in 1940 becoming the Department's deputy keeper, and in 1946, its keeper. Under his tenure he managed employment intake, collections and acquisitions, and curated special exhibitions using the Department's own collections, and those from public and private sources.[1][2]

The archeologist Roman Ghirshman invited Gray to Iran in 1951, to study Ville Royale excavations at Susa. Further visits to Iran included Iranian Institute's and British Council lectures at Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad, and for Shiraz he urged, as a member of the Iranian Institute governing body, investigations of the die trade between the Persian Gulf and China.[2]

He became the temporary Director of the British Museum in 1968, and retired in 1969. During retirement his focus turned to the relationship between Chinese ceramics and Persian painting. He became Vice-President of the British Institute of Persian Studies in 1969, chaired the Sixth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology at Oxford in 1972, and became President of the Societas Iranologica Europara in 1983.[2] As an art historian Gray wrote exhibition guides and books on Orientalism and Islamic Art.

Personal life

In 1933 Basil Gray married the calligrapher Nicolete Mary Binyon (1911-1997), daughter of Laurence Binyon, poet, art scholar and dramatist.[3] There were five children from the marriage.[4] Gray died on 10 June 1989 and is buried in the churchyard of Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire.[1]

Publications

See also

Obituaries and memorials

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gray, Basil, Dictionary of Art Historians, Art History Webmasters Association. Retrieved 10 March 2016
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Pinder-Wilson Ralph, (1989, Obituary - Basil Gray 1904-1989, Iran (journal), Vol. 27, British Institute of Persian Studies, pp.5-6. Retrieved 10 March 2016
  3. ↑ Hatcher, John (2004); "Binyon, (Robert) Laurence (1869–1943)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
  4. ↑ Barker, Nicolas; "Obituary: Nicolete Gray". The Independent, 12 June 1997. Retrieved 10 March 2016
  5. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/stable/4300674
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.