Roy Strong

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Roy Strong bigraphy, stories - Art historian

Roy Strong : biography

23 August 1935 –

Sir Roy Colin Strong FRSL (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has been director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He was knighted in 1983.

Honorary positions

  • Chairman of the Art Department, Arts Council.
  • Deputy Chairman, Southbank Centre.
  • High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, from 2000.
  • President, the Garden History Society, 2000-06.
  • President, the Friends of Croome Park, from 2008.

Biography

Early years

Roy Colin Strong was born in Winchmore Hill, North London and attended Edmonton County School in Edmonton.

He earned a first class honours degree in history at Queen Mary College, University of London. He then earned his Ph.D from the Warburg Institute, University of London and became a research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research. His passionate interest in the portraiture of Queen Elizabeth I was sidelined "while he wrote a thesis on Elizabethan Court Pageantry supervised by the Renaissance scholar, Dame Frances Yates who (he says) restructured and re-formed my thinking."Quad Alumni magazine #14,, Queen Mary College, June 2005, pp.6-8 In 2007 Strong listed his qualifications as DLitt PhD FSS.

Career

National Portrait Gallery

He became assistant keeper of the National Portrait Gallery in 1959, and was its director 1967-73: Sir Roy came to prominence at age 32 when he became the youngest director of the National Portrait Gallery. He set about transforming its conservative image with a series of extrovert shows, including "600 Cecil Beaton portraits 1928-1968." Dedicated to the culture of the 1960s and 1970s, Sir Roy went on to amuse audiences at the V&A in 1974 with his collection of fedora hats, kipper ties and maxi coats. By regularly introducing new exhibitions he doubled attendance.,

BBC