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43 Harrington Gardens
London SW7 4JU
UK
e-mail: robertcumming@bu-london.co.uk
Adjunct Professor, Chair of the Executive Board,
Boston University British Programmes, London
Professor Robert Cumming is a graduate of Cambridge University. He first studied law at Trinity Hall and qualified as a Barrister and went into practice. He returned to Trinity Hall to study Art History, writing a dissertation on British War Artists of the First World Wall. He then went on to work at the Tate Gallery in London, in the Education Department, working with all aspects of the collection which ranged from the 17th century to Contemporary. In 1978 he joined Christie's, the auction house, to found and develop Christie's Education which became the foremost auction house programme for educating and training art professionals with Schools in London, Scotland, Australia, New York and Paris. Professor Cumming retired from Christie's in 2000, and in 2004 joined Boston University with responsibility for the BU Centre in London.
Over the years Professor Cumming has served on many arts Foundations and Charities, including The National Trust, and the Arts Council of Great Britain. He has also lectured on a wide range of topics in the UK, USA and Europe, and has been a regular keynote Speaker at the Newport Symposium in Rhode Island. He has also organised exhibitions and presented television programmes.
Professor Cumming has written and published on a wide range of topics and has been successful with a series of books aimed at the type of adult and children’s audience that he first met when lecturing and teaching at the Tate Gallery. These books have been translated into over 20 languages worldwide and honoured with three literary prizes. He has a particular interest in European and North American art from 1850 to 1960, but also has an interest in decorative arts (he lectures on glass) as well as connoisseurship and the history of collecting. He and his wife are currently working on an edited edition of the correspondence between Bernard Berenson (who was a student at BU) and Kenneth Clark.
Professor Cumming helped to negotiate the new joint venture between the Department of Art History at BU and the Courtauld Institute in London and will be teaching students on that programme.
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