Christine Riding
Director of Collections and Research
Christine Riding was appointed Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery in February 2023, having been the Jacob Rothschild Head of the Curatorial Department and Curator of British Paintings for four years. Before joining the National Gallery, Christine held curatorial positions, first at the Museum of London and the Palace of Westminster and then, from 1999 to 2011, at the Tate, where she co-curating numerous exhibitions including ‘Hogarth’ (2007) at Tate Britain and ‘Gauguin: Maker of Myth’ (2010) at Tate Modern. From 2011-18 she was Head of Arts and Curator of the Queen’s House at the Royal Museums Greenwich and led on the acquisition of the ‘Kangaroo’ and ‘Dingo’ by George Stubbs (2013) and the ‘Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I’ (2016). She was also the curatorial lead on the major refurbishment of the Queen’s House, Greenwich, which included commissioning the installation in the Great Hall by Turner prize winning artist Richard Wright. From 2007‐12, Christine was Deputy Editor of ‘Art History’ (Journal of the Association for Art History) and from 2014–2019, she was Chair of The Association for Art History. She is also an alumna of the Clore Leadership Programme.
At the National Gallery, she has curated the exhibitions, ‘Kehinde Wiley: Prelude’ (December 2021-April 2022), ‘Gainsborough’s Blue Boy: The Return of a British Icon’ (January-May 2022) and ‘Turner on Tour: Masterpieces from the Frick Collection’ (November 2022-February 2023). She is the directorial lead on ‘NG200: The Main Event’ project for the Gallery’s bicentenary celebrations. This will be the first complete redisplay of the National Gallery’s world-class art collection in over thirty years. She is currently working on a new Research Strategy and planning the refurbishment of the Research Centre.