From The West Australian:
Leading curator Stringer dies
14th November 2007, 7:00 WST/ The West Australian
John Stringer, one of Perth’s leading artistic lights and the curator of billionaire Kerry Stokes’ vast art collection, has died at the age of 70.
Mr Stringer was found dead at his Northbridge home yesterday by his former wife June after he failed to arrive for work at Mr Stokes’ West Perth gallery.
He celebrated his birthday last week and was to attend his daughter Chloe’s wedding tomorrow.
As manager of the Stokes collection for the past 15 years, Mr Stringer s played a key role in opening its artistic riches — including masterpieces by Warhol, Monet, Matisse, Magritte, Drysdale and McCubbin — for public display.
A highlight was the Side by Side exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA in 2000, uniting masterpieces from the Stokes, Holmes a Court and Wesfarmers collections.
Mr Stokes said yesterday that Mr Stringer had a special gift for spotting artistic talent and had overseen the quadrupling of his collection into one of the most significant in the country. “He was unique in the arts in the exhibitions that he mounted,” Mr Stokes said. “I just thought he was the best curator I’d seen.”
Melbourne-born Mr Stringer arrived in Perth in 1988 as curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of WA from New York, where he worked for 18 years at the Museum of Modern Art, the Rockefeller Foundation and other institutions.
“If you went to New York or London with John, everyone in every gallery you would walk into would know John,” Mr Stokes said.
