Will Gompertz

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Will Gompertz has recently been appointed Director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum, previously he was Artistic Director at The Barbican. He is Author of international bestselling art history book What Are You Looking At? and is one of the most respected commentators on The Arts.

Prior to his time at the Barbican, Will spent 11 years as the BBC’s Art Editor. During which, he reported on all things Arts and Culture, as well as interviewing the likes of Mick Jagger, Meryl Streep, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John.

His new book, See What You’re Missing, takes us into the minds of artists – from contemporary stars to old masters, the well-known to those at the artistic vanguard – to show us how to look and experience the world with their heightened powers of perception. In See What You’re Missing we learn, for example, how Hasegawa Tohaku can help us to see beauty, how David Hockney helps us to see colour, and how Frida Kahlo can help us see pain. In doing so we come to know the intoxicating feeling of being truly alive. This will be published in February 2023

Voted one of the World’s Top 50 Creative Thinkers by New York’s Creativity Magazine, Will was previously a Director of The Tate Gallery.

In 2009, he wrote and performed a sell-out one-man comedy show about modern art at the Edinburgh Festival.

As a writer he has penned numerous articles for, among others, The Times and the Guardian and his second book Think Like an Artist: Imaginative Ways to a More Creative and Productive Life was released by Penguin in 2015, and is a witty and inspiring read, identifying ten lessons to be learned from the greatest artists across history, to give us tools to unlock creativity and thrive at work and in our personal lives.