David Alan Mellor

{{short description|British curator, professor and writer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2015}}

David Alan Mellor (1948–2023) was a British curator, professor and writer.{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/mar/01/academicexperts.highereducationprofile | date = 1 March 2005 | accessdate = 26 October 2016 | first = Chris | last = Arnot | newspaper = The Guardian | location = London | title = David Alan Mellor: Image maker}} He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's J. Dudley Johnston Award and Education Award.Royal Photographic Society. Past Award Recipients https://rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/ Accessed 30 October 2023

Life and career

David Mellor — as he was called before he began using his full name professionally to avoid confusion with the politician of the same name — grew up in Leicester as the child of a lorry-driver and a hairdresser; he attended school intermittently due to his severe asthma. As an undergraduate he studied art at Sussex University under Quentin Bell. During this time Asa Briggs, then Vice-Chancellor of the University, received the archive of Mass-Observation from Tom Harrisson. For his first job Mellor catalogued this archive, and he then published and curated exhibitions about the substantial collection of pre-war photographs of working-class life contained within it.

Exhibitions curated by Mellor include Paradise Lost: The New Romantic Imagination in Britain (Barbican Centre, 1987);[http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/exhibitions/exhibition/a-paradise-lost-the-neo-romantic-imagination-in-britain-1935-55-1987 "A Paradise Lost the Neo-Romantic Imagination in Britain 1935-55"] Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre. Accessed 26 October 2016 The Sixties (1993); and Co-Optic & Documentary Photography Group (Brighton Photo Biennial, 2014)."[http://bpb.org.uk/2014/event/real-britain-1974-co-optic-and-documentary-photography/ Co-Optic & Documentary Photography Group|BPB14]", Brighton Photo Biennial. Accessed 2 November 2014. As a professor of art at Sussex University, his students included Jeremy Deller.

He died in September 2023.{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Emeritus Professor Maurice |title=Obituary: Professor David Alan Mellor |url=https://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/62223 |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=The University of Sussex |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-26 |title=Obituary: David Alan Mellor (1948-2023) |url=https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/obituary-david-alan-mellor-1948-2023 |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=British Photographic History}}

Awards

  • 2005: Royal Photographic Society's J. Dudley Johnston Award, shared with Ian Jeffrey"[http://www.sussex.ac.uk/press_office/media/media508.shtml Art history professor recognised for contribution to photography], University of Sussex, 4 October 2005; accessed 2010-10-22.
  • 2015: Royal Photographic Society's Education Award[http://www.rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/education-award "Education Award"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521191340/http://rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/education-award |date=21 May 2016 }} Royal Photographic Society. Accessed 26 October 2016

Publications

  • Cecil Beaton. London: Jonathan Cape, 1994; {{ISBN|0-224-04122-3}}; coedited with Philippe Garner
  • Arthur Tress: Centric 52: Requiem for a Paperweight. Long Beach: California State University, University Art Museum, 1994; {{ISBN|0-936270-33-0}}
  • David Hiscock. London: Zelda Cheatle, 1995. {{ISBN|0-9518371-9-2}}
  • Sixties London: The Photographs of Robert Whitaker 1965–70. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1996.
  • The Only Blonde in the World: Pauline Boty, 1938–1966. London: AM Publications, 1998. {{ISBN|0-9509896-2-2}}; with Sue Watling.
  • Chemical Traces: Photography and Conceptual Art, 1968–1998. Kingston upon Hull: Kingston upon Hull City Museums & Art Galleries, 1998; {{ISBN|0-904490-19-X}}.
  • The Barry Joule Archive: Works on Paper Attributed to Francis Bacon. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2000; {{ISBN|1-873654-84-7}}.
  • The Sixties: Britain and France, 1962–1973: The Utopian Years. London: Philip Wilson, 2001; {{ISBN|0-85667-467-2}}.
  • Tracing Light. Maidstone: Photoworks, 2001; {{ISBN|0-9517427-8-7}}; with Garry Fabian Miller.
  • The Art of Robyn Denny. London: Black Dog, 2002; {{ISBN|1-901033-33-3}}.
  • Interpreting Lucian Freud. London: Tate, 2002; {{ISBN|1-85437-442-7}}.
  • Van Gogh vu par Bacon. Arles: Actes sud, 2002; {{ISBN|2-7427-3840-1}}; Vincent van Gogh as seen by Francis Bacon, edited by Mellor and Yolande Clergue {{in lang|fr}}
  • Liliane Lijn: Works 1959–80. Warwick: Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, 2005; {{ISBN|0-902683-75-6}}
  • No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection. London: Hayward Publishing, 2007; {{ISBN|978-1-85332-265-5}}.
  • Antonioni's "Blow-up". Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. {{ISBN|9783869300238}}; with Philippe Garner.
  • The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographs 1920–1970. Munich: Schirmer Mosel, 2012. {{ISBN|9783829606103}}; with Philippe Garner.
  • The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographien 1920–1970. Munich: Schirmer Mosel, 2012. {{ISBN|9783829606097}}; translated into German by Martina Tichy.
  • The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographies 1920–1970. Malakoff: Hazan, 2012. {{ISBN|9782754106672}}; translated into French by Patrick Bouthinon.
  • Cecil Beaton: Retrospectiva. Barcelona: Lunwerg, 2012. {{ISBN|9788497859066}}; translated into Spanish by Arturo Muñoz Vico.
  • The Bruce Lacey Experience: Paintings, Sculptures, Installations and Performances. London: Camden Arts Centre, 2012; {{OCLC|830911159}}; with Bruce Lacey.
  • Conflict, Time, Photography. London: Tate, 2014. {{ISBN|9781849763202}}; with Simon Baker and Shoair Mavlian.
  • A Guide for the Protection of the Public in Peacetime. London: Archive of Modern Conflict, 2014; {{OCLC|909056856}}.

References