The Brooklyn Rail

HENRY MEYRIC HUGHES is a freelance curator, consultant, and writer on art. He is General Co-ordinator of Council of Europe Exhibitions and Honorary President of AICA. He was a co-founder of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art (2003), Manifesta and President of the Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam, from 1996-2007. From 1968-92 he worked for the British Council in Germany, Peru, France, and Italy, ending up as Director of Visiting Arts (1994-96) and Director of Visual Arts (1986-92). He was the British Commissioner for the Venice Biennial and the Sao Paulo Bienal, 1986-92. He was then director of the Hayward Gallery, including National Touring Exhibitions and the Arts Council Collection, from 1992-96, (exhibitions incl. Art and Power: Europe under the Dictators 1930-1945, The Spirit of Romanticism in German Art, 1790-1990, and the British Art Show 4). His recent projects include curating a survey exhibition, Blast to Freeze: British Art in the Twentieth Century for Wolfsburg and Toulouse (2002-03); the Cypriot Pavilion (Nikos Charalambidis) at the 2003 Venice Biennial; a touring exhibition of contemporary art in Norway for Oslo (2005-06); and No Borders, Just N.E.W.S., a touring exhibition of young European artists in 2008. He is currently co-curating the XXX Council of Europe exhibition, The Struggle for Freedom/Critique and Crisis: Art in Europe since 1945 for Berlin, Krakow, Tallinn and Milan (2012-2013), with extension to Thessaloniki, Sarajevo, Prague and Brussels (2014-2015). Recent publications include AICA in the Age of Globalisation (AICA Press, 2010) and African Contemporary Art: Critical Concerns / Art Contemporain Africain: Regards Critiques (AICA Press, 2011, co-ed.) and John Moores Critics Awards 2012 (Shanghai, 2013, co-ed.).