Penelope Curtis

PENELOPE CURTIS grew up in Glasgow. Over the course of a distinguished career in the arts, she has directed the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, Tate Britain in London, and, most recently, the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. As an art historian, she is especially known for her work on Barbara Hepworth, about whom she has written a best-selling biography, and for many exhibitions on the materials and meanings of sculpture. She was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres by the French government in 2014, then an Officer of the same order in 2018. Her most recent books are The Pliable Plane and Scale: Sculpture 1945-2000. After Nora is her first novel.

Photograph of the author copyright Dominic Lee/Les Fugitives 2023