David Park
Honorary Professor
Profile
Professor David Park
Honorary Professor
Biography
David Park is Emeritus Professor of the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he was Director of the Conservation of Wall Painting Department, Director of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Art and Conservation, and Coordinator of the National Survey of Medieval Wall Painting (now the Survey of Historic Wall Paintings in the British Isles). His work has focused on the art-historical study of wall paintings, especially of the medieval period, and efforts to improve conservation education and practice in Asia and elsewhere. The latter involved collaborative projects by the Conservation of Wall Painting Department in many countries, including Bhutan, Cyprus, Georgia and India.
With colleagues he curated the exhibition Wonder: Painted Sculpture from Medieval England (Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2002-3), and organised conferences including New Light in Dark Places: Recent Discoveries and New Directions in Anglo-Saxon Studies (2010) and Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context (2014, Courtauld Institute and British Museum). His publications include Cistercian Art and Architecture in the British Isles, ed. with Christopher Norton (1986); Early Medieval Wall Painting and Painted Sculpture in England (BAR British Series, 216), ed. with Sharon Cather and Paul Williamson (1990); The Temple Church in London: History, Architecture, Art, ed. with R. Griffith-Jones (2010); and Art of Merit: Studies in Buddhist Art and its Conservation(Proceedings of the Buddhist Art Forum 2012), ed. with K. Wangmo and S. Cather (2013). His current research focuses on medieval art in northern England, and also on several artists working in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including Francis Wheatley and Henry Singleton. David Park is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the International Institute for Conservation, and is a Trustee of the York Glaziers Trust. In 2018 a conference on Interpreting and Conserving the Cultural Heritage was held in his honour at the University of York.
Publications
Publications include the following books
Art of Merit: Studies in Buddhist Art and its Conservation (Proceedings of the Buddhist Art Forum 2012), ed. with K. Wangmo and S. Cather, London 2013
Wall Paintings of Eton, with E. Howe, H. McBurney, S. Rickerby and L. Shekede, London 2012 (awarded the 2013 William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History)
The Temple Church in London: History, Architecture, Art, ed. with R. Griffith-Jones, Woodbridge 2010
Wonder: Painted Sculpture from Medieval England (catalogue of exhibition at Henry Moore Institute), with S. Boldrick, P. Williamson, and including cat. entries by other specialists, Leeds 2002
Early Medieval Wall Painting and Painted Sculpture in England (BAR British Series, 216), ed. with S. Cather and P. Williamson, Oxford 1990
Dominican Painting in East Anglia: The Thornham Parva Retable and the Musee de Cluny Frontal, with C. Norton and P. Binski, Cambridge 1986
Cistercian Art and Architecture in the British Isles, ed. with C. Norton, Cambridge 1986 (reissued in paperback with new Preface, 2012)
Recent conferences organised include
2014 Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context, Courtauld Institute and British Museum, organised with M. Willis
2012 Buddhist Art Forum, Courtauld Institute, sponsored by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, organised with K. Wangmo
2010 New Light in Dark Places: Recent Discoveries and New Directions in Anglo-Saxon Studies, Courtauld Institute, organised with L. Cleaver
Exhibition
2002-3 Wonder: Painted Sculpture from Medieval England, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, co-curator