Elena Greer works as a curatorial assistant at The National Gallery in London. She studied at Oxford and the Courtauld before stints at The Metropolitan Museum in New York and Christie’s in London. Working on all aspects of the exhibition process she can find herself doing anything from escorting paintings to Scandinavian museums in the middle of the night to spending days knee deep in books and research material preparing to write catalogue copy.
What do you do all day?
In the warm-up to exhibition season many days start with a re-hang. This is when we have to replace pictures that are on loan to an exhibition and can sometimes involve re-hanging a whole gallery. Despite having to be super-alert first thing, it is good to be reminded that the pictures are historical objects as well as the subjects of academic scrutiny. Although our technicians do the actual handling, I love the practicality of this task. Some days are spent in the conservation department looking at Gallery paintings using infra-red technology which enables us to see under-drawing beneath the paint surface – it is amazing to see the artistic process revealed. More library-based research can be for a number of purposes: potential exhibition loans, public enquiries, catalogue entries or Gallery talks. More general admin always features and there is often the odd label to write.
