About

CLARE HENRY, FRSA

Clare Henry was the Herald art critic for 20 years, from 1980-2000. In 2000 she moved to New York where she was art critic for the Financial Times till 2008. Her writings, over 2 million words, provide a vast academic asset and a rich resource for students, researchers, teachers, historians and artists.

The period covers a significant flourishing of the visual arts in Scotland. Henry was witness to an exciting time & chronicled notable events such as the Edinburgh Festivals, Mayfest, the opening of the Burrell, Hunterian & Transmission in Glasgow, Edinburgh’s new Gallery of Modern Art, Museum of Scotland & Dean Centre, Dundee’s DCA, Tate of the North in Liverpool, Martin Gropius Bau Berlin, Te Papa in New Zealand & the success of Glasgow Capital of Culture 1990. She interviewed artists like Douglas Gordon, Jenny Saville, Marina Abramovic, Jim Dine, Paula Rego,  Christo, Cai Guo-Qiang, Bridget Riley, Chuck Close, Calatrava, John Bellany, Any Goldsworthy, Bruce McLean, George Wyllie & Steven Campbell. Henry also commented on controversies & closures, & the politics of arts funding.  

Her 30 year+ archive is available via the original drafts at Glasgow School of Art, while 30 Bound Books of xerox copies of the actual articles are to be found via the Glasgow Women’s Library. 

This website scottishartarchive.com  provides an easily accessible index to most of her writings from 1980-2014.

Along with the Herald, Henry also wrote for many UK & US magazines & publications including the Scotsman, Guardian, Harpers, World of Interiors, Town and Country, Arts Review, Galleries magazine, Sculpture US, Art Newspaper, ARTnews USA, Artline, Studio International, Art International, State, Ikebana Ryusei Japan, Allgemaines Kunstlerlexiokon German & Gabrius Italy.

She now writes for various magazines in UK & USA. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

For 20 years Henry covered the UK art scene in depth. She wrote roughly 150 articles a year with particular emphasis on Scottish artists, providing lively profiles, interviews & controversial art politics pieces along with critical reviews. Glasgow’s civic renaissance owes a great deal to the arts, & its success provides a significant sociological & political story.

Clare Henry wrote artists catalogues and also curated many exhibitions including New Scottish Prints for Britain Salutes New York 1983, in NYC; London’s Serpentine Summer Show; Artists at Work, Edinburgh Festival; The Vigorous Imagination at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art for the Edinburgh Festival 1987; Critic’s Choice London 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 94, 98; Scots in Los Angeles; Scotland at the Venice Biennale 1990, Critic’s Choice for the RSA Edinburgh, New Millennium, Chicago & Washington DC 1999-2000. In 1990 she was commissioner for Scotland at the Venice Biennale, the only time in the 20th century that Scottish artists were part of the official Venice Biennale.

She was former chairman of Glasgow Print Studio; served on the Scottish Design Council, on the working party for Contemporary art of the National Trust. She was on the board of Stirling’s Smith Art Gallery & Museum; a trustee of the Scottish Sculpture Trust 1984-90, also former member of the British Council Visiting Arts panel; a founder member Salvo, (Scottish Arts lobbying organisation); National Union of Journalists; Arts Correspondents Group London; member Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NYC, & is a member International Association of Art Critics, (AICA UK), plus the American Association of of Art Critics.

Artists at Work won the Absa Award for best project. In 1991 Henry was short listed for the National Art Collections Fund Award and in 1996 made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

As a printmaker she exhibited regularly in the 1970s & 80s. Recently she also made prints at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City.

Her monthly blog 2013-2018 http://clarehenry-artjournal.blogspot.com  covered exhibitions and events in both the USA and UK. It started in Aug 2013 with the irrepressible Richard Demarco receiving his well earned European Prize 2013 at the Edinburgh Festival, then went to Sculpture along Broadway NYC.  After covering a lot of ground and 140 shows, it ended at Glasgow’s Hunterian five years later. 

Clare now writes for various magazines in the UK & USA.    Since 2017 she is a regular contributor to ARTLYST and Art North magazine.     She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.