Leslie Primo at the National Gallery
About Leslie Primo
Leslie Primo is an art historian, lecturer, author, and broadcaster. Graduating from Birkbeck, University College, London with a BA in Art History, and an Art History MA in Renaissance Studies, he specialised in early Medieval Art and Architecture, Italian Renaissance art, German art in the age of Reformation, Medici & Patronage, and mythology in the work of Peter Paul Rubens. Leslie worked as a lecturer at the National Gallery, London for 18 years as well as in the same capacity at the National Portrait Gallery for 10 years to present.
In his broadcasting capacity, Leslie Primo appeared in the BBC Art on the BBC series speaking on the life of Michelangelo and presenting a programme on JMW Turner: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0013vd0/art-on-the-bbc-series-2-4-turner-light-and-landscape he has also been a panellist on several occasions for the BBC Radio 4 programme, ‘Moving Pictures’, speaking on a variety of subjects including the Adoration of the Magi: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00035tr.
He has also been published on a number of subjects including: The Adoration of the Magi for the Art UK website: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/depicting-the-magi-origins-gifts-and-representing-men-of-colour an art history consultant for the Getty publication, Balthazar: A Black African King in medieval and Renaissance Art https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9781606067857/balthazar/, a published article called, ‘On Land and Sea’ for the Royal Academy Magazine to accompany the Entangled Pasts exhibition: No.161, Winter 2023, an art history consultant for DK Life Stories: Leonardo da Vinci – a children’s book for ages 7-11; https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9781465490650-dk-life-stories-leonardo-da-vinci/. Leslie Primo is also a contributor to the inaugural 2007 edition of the Oxford Companion Guide to Black British History: https://www.oxfordreference.co
Leslie’s new book, ‘The Foreign Invention of British Art’ is published by Thames & Hudson on June 5th, 2025. Leslie Primo currently lectures for The Arts Society and teaches a variety of art history courses at Imperial College, London – South Kensington campus, the City Literary, London and The Course at the University Women’s Club, Mayfair: https://thecoursestudies.co.uk