Now it can be told, fully: FRAME, the French Regional & American Museum Exchange — which is responsible for exhibitions like The Mourners, now on view at the Metropolitan Museum — is looking for a new American director.
Last fall, FRAME announced the appointment of Edmund “Ted” Pillsbury to the job, succeeding art historian and curator Richard R. Brettell. But, as I wrote for the April issue of The Art Newspaper, which is now out, freeing me to post this, Pillsbury started in January but left after just 28 days on the job.
Pillsbury found the diplomacy and support role of the FRAME director not to his liking, he told me in mid-March, just days before his death of a heart attack on Mar. 25. His departure was never announced, and his tenure with FRAME understandably went unmentioned in his obit.
All of which leaves Elizabeth Rohatyn, founder and co-president, in control of FRAME in the U.S. as Brettell can’t come back even temporarily — he is producing a series of books on the “History and Theory of Art Museums” for Yale University Press. Rohatyn has postponed her own departure, and has begun the search for someone new. As I wrote for The Art Newspaper, Rohatyn (left) said she was asking museum directors who are members of FRAME “to surface some names.” (See more details in TAN; the article is not online.)
Another source who knows Rohatyn and FRAME well told me that Rohatyn thinks that former museum directors are the likeliest candidates for the job, which is not full-time.
Pillsbury’s word to the wise would be this: “FRAME is a wonderful concept…It enables people to do wonderful things. But I’m not an enabler. I’ve run museums for 25 years.”