Norman Reid

Sir Norman Robert Reid (27 December 1915 – 17 December 2007) was an arts administrator and painter. He served as the director of the Tate Gallery from 1964 to 1979.

Early life Norman Reid was born in Dulwich, London, and was the son of Edward Daniel Reid, a shoemaker. He was educated at Wilson's Grammar School and won a scholarship to the Edinburgh College of Art, where he studied in the late 1930s and was taught by William Gillies. Later, Reid received a degree in English at Edinburgh University. Reid enlisted in 1939 in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at the start of Second World War. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the same regiment on 2 August 1941. He transferred to the Royal Artillery on 1 November 1941, and later served in Italy. He left the Army in 1946 with the rank of major. In 1941, Reid married Jean Lindsay Bertram, whom he met while they were students at the Edinburgh College of Art.

Tate gallery

Reid joined the Tate Gallery in 1946 having heard that it was understaffed, and became the right-hand man of the then director, John Rothenstein, becoming deputy director in 1954 and keeper in 1959. He was appointed director when Rothenstein retired in 1964. When a journalist discovered the sculpture listed in the Tate's Biennial Report of 1972–74 the matter was picked up by numerous British newspapers, with the subsequent hostility causing great embarrassment to Reid, who defended the purchase and the curators who had made it. However, the case dogged Reid for the rest of his period as director.

Reid also increased the Tate's earlier collections, launching a successful fund-raising drive in 1977 to acquire Haymakers and Reapers by George Stubbs.

The strong personal relationships he forged with artists (he himself had trained as a painter), also led to important works being donated to the Gallery. Mark Rothko's Seagram murals and work by Barbara Hepworth (Reid later acted as one of her executors ), Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Henry Moore were all gifted to the Tate largely as a result of the personal respect the artists had for Reid. He established the gallery's conservation department, the Exhibitions and Education department, and was involved in founding the Friends of the Tate, the American Friends of the Tate, and the Paintings in Hospitals charity. and died in London aged 91.

Publications His publications include: Gabo Naum, 1890–1977 by Jorn Mekert and Sir Norman Reid, Annely Juda Fine Art, 1990.

Notes and references

Obituary—Sir Norman Reid—Brilliant director of the Tate Gallery who expanded the national collections of modern and historic British art, The Guardian, 2007-12-19. Retrieved on 2008-10-08