Thompson, S., 2023.

'Maker of Exhibitions': the curatorial practice of Cordelia Oliver

The artist, critic and curator Cordelia Oliver (1923-2009) was an integral figure in the cultural life of Scotland from the late 1950s to her death in 2009. A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Oliver gave up her career as a painter to become a freelance critic and curator, a dual role which allowed a unique perspective on the production and reception of contemporary art from Scotland over five decades. Her curatorial work aimed to showcase and develop the reputation of Scottish art in a British and international context. A member of the Scottish Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain (later the Scottish Arts Council) and a founding member of Glasgow's Third Eye Centre, Oliver curated a large number of exhibitions throughout the 1970s and 1980s which reveal an implicit yet sustained effort to foreground and champion art by women. A close associate of the gallerist Richard Demarco, she contributed to projects which introduced avant-garde, experimental and cross-disciplinary practices to the relatively staid art institutions of 1970s and '80s Scotland. This article focuses on Oliver's activities as a 'maker of exhibitions' as an artist-curator and a polymathic 'participant observer' of the artists she critiqued and exhibited.