Moncrieff Williamson

Moncrieff Willliamson (Crieff) LL. D. FRSA FCMA (November 23, 1915 August 12, 1996) was a Canadian gallery director, curator, art historian and author of biographies, a mystery and poetry as well as an educator, teaching fine art at universities and lecturing.

Career Williamson was born in East Linton, Scotland and spent his early youth in Edinburgh. After an education in Scotland and Belgium, Williamson graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art and worked in documentary and feature films in the United Kingdom and then with the art exhibitions bureau in London, England (now called the Federation of British artists), eventually becoming its director around 1947. At the same time, he wrote for the art news agency in the U.K., and worked as a freelance writer and educator.

In 1940, he served in the British Air Commission in the Communications section in Washington and in 1943, transferred to the British Army Intelligence Corps with which he served in England, Belgium, and Germany.

His collection choices were widely diverse, ranging from the vast collection of works and archival material related to Robert Harris to crafts, a collection of British porcelain or L. M. Montgomery’s manuscripts. He became in time the first scholar to study Harris's career and organized the Contemporary Canadian Crafts exhibition for Expo '67. After he retired, the gallery made him Director Emeritus

In 1983, he wrote a mystery novel, "Death in the picture: a Cyrus Finnegan mystery". In 1995, he and his wife moved to Edmonton to live with his son, Timothy and his wife, where both Crieff and Pam died in 1996.

He is regarded as "one of the busiest and most gregarious gallery directors" in Canada.

Selected honours and awards Order of Canada (1976); Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Canadian Centennial Medal, 1967; Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal, 1988; President, Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization, 1971-1973; Gold Medal, Glenbow Museum Acquisition Society, 1986; The Confederation Centre Art Gallery named one of its galleries for him (1991). "Robert Harris", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–.

Legacy In 2014, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown organized Acquired in 1964, curated by Cathy Busby. It displayed the collection that Williamson, acquired ahead of the opening of the gallery in 1964 and sheds light on his acquisition choices. In 2017, Kevin Rice, the gallery director, and Pan Wendt, the curator, organized an exhibition titled RE:collection, using the collection in novel and different ways. The exhibition was accompanied by a book catalogue they authored.