Nancy Underhill

In 2017 she was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland.

Underhill, Nancy (2015) Sidney Nolan: A Life. Sydney NSW, NewSouth. British Library General Reference Collection YK.2016.a.1881

In 2014 her involvement as curator culminated in the exhibition Remembering Brian and Marjorie Johnstone's Galleries. It ran from the end of May to mid August 2014. She also wrote the catalogue for the exhibition.

Underhill, Nancy and Martin-Chew, Louise (2014) Remembering Brian and Marjorie Johnston's Galleries, Brisbane, University of Queensland

In 2013 Underhill was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University for "her achievement and service within the Australian and international visual arts community."

Fennessy, Kathleen, Taylor Alex; Stephen, Ann; McNamara, Philip; Goad, Andrew; Carter Nannette; Smith, Bernard; Hoorn, Janet and Underhill, Nancy, Sweeping Across Art History from Australia. Art History, Vol. 32, No. 3, 2009, 608–618, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing. British Library Shelfmark 1733.447000

Underhill, Nancy (2007) Nolan on Nolan, London, Viking, London. British Library General Reference Collection YC.2009.a.3973

Reid, Barrett and Underhill, Nancy (2001) Letters of John Reid: Defining Australian Cultural Life 1920-1981, Harmondsworth, Penguin. British Library General Reference Collection YA.2002.a.27205

Underhill, Nancy D., Peter Kennedy: Breaking Down the Barriers, Art and Australia, Vol. 38 (1), 2000, 98-104

Underhill, Nancy D., Figaro as Seinfeld: The 19th Century Sitcom, Opera News May, 1999, 1

Underhill, Nancy D., La Dame aux Camelias, To La Traviata, Opera News, 9 (2), 1999, 1-1

Underhill, Nancy (1992) Making Australian Art 1916-46: Sidney Ure Smith - Patron and Publisher, Oxford University Press, Australia. British Library General Reference Collection YC. 1993.b.1461

She coordinated 'Eureka!, 1982 Artists from Australia' exhibition, and assembled the catalogue of the exhibition. The exhibition was held from March–April 1982 at The Serpentine Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

Underhill arrived in Australia in 1963 to work as a lecturer and tutor in the Department of History at the University of Queensland. Her presence was immediately felt in Brisbane by those interested in art and art education. In 1964 she had arranged a talk at the university on the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral, which had been extensively damaged in World War 2. The talk included film of the cathedral and discussion of the works of Graham Sutherland, Jacob Epstein and John Piper.

Underhill's higher education included attendance at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, where she attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960. Following this she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, attaining a Master of Philosophy degree in 1962, the subject of which was Romanesque Churches in Oxfordshire. For her doctoral thesis on Australian Art Patronage between 1916 and 1950 she was awarded a PhD by the University of Melbourne.

During the 1960s Underhill contributed art criticism to magazines including The Bulletin, and in 1965 she was elected as editor of the broadsheet of the Queensland Branch of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia, through which she encouraged debate about art and art history. In her Masters thesis submitted in 1989 the author, Helen Fridemanis, asserts that Underhill was not afraid to challenge critics who suggested that Brisbane was on the "periphery of culture" in the 1960s.

Professor Nancy Underhill (born 1938) is an art historian, curator, lecturer and author. She is the Founder of the University of Queensland Department of Art History.

Nancy Dudley Hoffman was born in New York City in 1938 to parents Kenneth L. Hoffman and Ruth Walker Hoffman. In 1962 she married Peter Francis Underhill (died 2013) in London. They have two sons.