Julian Spalding was a director of art galleries for Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow. He established the Ruskin Gallery, the St Mungo Museum of Religious Art and Life, the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow and the Campaign for Drawing. His many books include The Poetic Museum, The Eclipse of Art, The Art of Wonder (winner of the Sir Banister Fletcher Prize 2006), Con Art, The Best Art You've Never Seen, Realisation and, with Raymond Tallis, Summers of Discontent.

His introduction to Lowry's Lamps was published last year, and to Kurt Jackson's Sea in 2021. A short film by him, Faith and Doubt in Artwas made by HENI Talks in 2019.