Meet the Panel
Emma Baker, Head of Contemporary Art Evening Auctions, Sotheby’s London.
Emma Baker first joined Sotheby’s in 2011 as a Researcher/Writer for the Contemporary Art Department in London and was appointed Head of Research in 2014 with a focus on the academic and visual content of the Evening Sale catalogues. After playing an increasingly leading role in the running of these auctions, Emma was made Head of Sale in October 2018. In 2017 she was responsible for co-curating the selling exhibition at Sotheby’s S2 Gallery, Traumata: Louise Bourgeois/Yayoi Kusama. Prior to joining Sotheby’s, Emma worked in the Curatorial Department at Tate Britain after graduating with an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2010.
Iwona Blazwick OBE
Recently appointed to Arts AlUla in Saudi Arabia, curator, writer and art historian Iwona Blazwick was Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, from 2001 to 2022 and was formerly at Tate Modern and London’s ICA. She inaugurated the Tate Turbine Hall and Whitechapel Gallery commissions’ programmes, and has been an independent curator of survey shows and public art commissions in Europe and the US, Japan and China. She is an advisor for the Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth Committee and the City of London’s Sculpture in the City.
Will Gompertz
Will Gompertz is the Artistic Director of the Barbican and was previously the BBC’s Arts Editor, reporting extensively on the arts across the globe. Gompertz has also written and presented countless documentaries and spent seven years as a director of the Tate Galleries where he was responsible for its BAFTA-winning website, creative direction, and the launch of the UK's first Performance Art festival. He has written two internationally best-selling non-fiction books What Are You Looking At? (2012) – a history of modern art and Think Like an Artist (2015) about creativity. Gompertz was voted one of the World's Top 50 Creative Thinkers by New York's Creativity magazine. His next book, See What You’re Missing, an insight into the minds of artists, is due to be released in March 2023.
Paloma Picasso
Paloma Picasso is a designer particularly renowned for her bold and colourful jewellery creations for Tiffany & Co. She is the daughter of artists Francoise Gilot and Pablo Picasso.