Gerard Vaughan

Gerard Vaughan, appointed Director of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1999, is an art historian with extensive experience within the international art and museum worlds. His research interests are particularly concerned with the history of taste and art collecting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ranging from neo-classicism to post-impressionism. He was previously director of the British Museum Development Trust and has recently been appointed Gervy Higgins Professorial Fellow in Art History at the University of Melbourne.

Gerard Vaughan reviews 'The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture' edited by Philip Goad and Julie Willis

July–August 2012, no. 343 • 10 July 2012

This is an impressive publication, a massive tome with high gloss pages, beautifully designed with the highest production values, lavishly illustrated, with entries provided (on my count) by 229 separate contributors. This monumental collective effort makes a defining contribution to the study and documentation of architecture in this country, and to Australian architectural history. It is astonis ... (read more)

Gerard Vaughan reviews 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' by Neil MacGregor

June 2011, no. 332 • 24 May 2011

This fascinating, complex book relies for its success on the simplest of ideas and methodologies. Its publication was the necessary and inevitable follow-on from the hugely successful BBC Radio 4 series, when, over twenty weeks, British Museum (BM) director Neil MacGregor presented short, daily radio commentaries, in thematically conceived groups of five, on one hundred objects carefully selected ... (read more)