Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
Right before Christmas, I posted news from the Art Institute of Chicago about a new Associate Curator in the Department of Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture–Rebecca Long.
It was news largely because it was another defection from the Indianpolis Museum of Art. Then the AIC retracted.
It has all been fixed, and Long is indeed the new curator in Chicago. Here’s the AIC press release and here is my original post, which explained the significance.
It had to happen, after the last few years; Graham Beal, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts for the past 15-plus year, will retire on June 30.
Here’s what the release said:
Since joining the DIA, Beal has presided over some of the most significant accomplishments in the museum’s history, including a tremendously successful reinvention of presenting art to the public; passage of a tri-county regional millage to support museum operations; and the DIA participation in the historic and unprecedented grand bargain initiative, which secured for future generations’ the DIA’s widely acclaimed art collection while also successfully facilitating resolution of the Detroit bankruptcy.
Beal also helped raised tons of money. The release also cited his major acquisitions and exhibitions, as follows:
Major Acquisitions
Double-Cup, Hans Petzolt, 1596
Ewer, Medici Manufactory, between 1575 and 1578
Chief’s Throne, Olówè of Isè, 20th century
Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 (The Marseillaise), Francois Rude, ca. 1835
Study for Birds, Albert Joseph Moore, 1878
Officer of the Hussars, Kehinde Wiley, 2007
Seated Nude Woman Brushing Her Hair, Edgar Degas, 1885/1908
Russet Landscape, Edgar Degas, ca. 1890
Charger, Ottoman, between 1480 and 1500
Das Geviert, Anselm Kiefer, 1997
The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634
Major Exhibitions
Van Gogh: Face to Face, 2000
Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur, 2001
Over the Line: The Life and Art of Jacob Lawrence, 2002
Degas and the Dance, 2002
Magnificenza! The Medici, Michelangelo and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence, 2003
American Attitude: Whistler and His Followers, 2003
Camille Claudel and Rodin: Fateful Encounter, 2006
Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present, 2010
Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, 2011
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit, opens March 15
In the last few years, I think Beal has done yeoman’s work, so I am not surprised at all by this.
The trick will be finding a replacement.
Did you know that Thomas “Thom” Collins, was a native Philadelphian? I don’t know if that helped, but Collins–currently director of the Perez Art Museum in Miami, has just been named executive director and president of the Barnes Foundation there. He was there for five years–some of them turbulent.
But the record he posted there undoubtedly counted in Philadelphia. Here’s how it was described in the press release:
At PAMM, Mr. Collins oversaw construction of the new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building located in downtown Miami, which opened to great acclaim in December 2013. During his tenure, the museum achieved an overwhelming increase in membership, annual giving, attendance, and major gifts, published important exhibition and collection catalogs, added significant works of art to the collection, and began in-house production of critical new digital education tools.
I don’t know Collins and haven’t been following him in a while, though I tend to think of him as more of a contemporary art person than a good fit for the Barnes. so I don’t really have any comment, for now.
Another personnel shift: On Monday, Derek Gillman, who headed the Barnes Foundation until 2013, when he unexpectedly stepped down to join the faculty of Drexel University, started a new job yesterday–at Christie’s in New York.
There, he is Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art,  and senior vice president of The Americas unit of the auction house. The release said:
[he] will work very closely with Giovanna Bertazzoni, International Head of Impressionist & Modern Art and Brooke Lampley, International Director, Impressionist & Modern Art, and their team of specialists. Tapping his deep experience and wide network of relationships, Gillman will nurture client relationships and support business strategy around the world for the department. In this role, Gillman will report directly to Marc Porter, Chairman, Christie’s Americas.
Drexel always seemed a stopgap for Gillman, who taught museum leadership there–at least that is what he said at the time of his departure from the Barnes. Then, he also told the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The Barnes is really well-positioned for the future and I am excited about going back into higher education, where I have spent half of my career and where I can apply my experience in institution-building along with my long-standing academic interests.
But the word in the museum world was that Gillman’s fundraising prowess, or lack thereof, failed to please the Barnes board.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Drexel University
A curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nicholas Cullinan, is taking a round-trip back to London to become director of the National Portrait Gallery.
Cullinan, a curator in the modern and contemporary art department, joined the Met less than two years ago. When he did, he was described this way by Tom Campbell:
He is a formidable scholar who has established himself with distinction in the field of modern and contemporary art over the past decade, particularly through his work on Cy Twombly, Arte Povera, and a range of contemporary artists internationally. He is an impressive curator, lecturer, and teacher who will be a wonderful addition and complement to the curatorial team headed by Sheena Wagstaff here at the Met.
Cullinan had been recruited from his post as curator of International Modern Art at Tate Modern. Announcing the appointment, the NPG said:
The appointment by the Gallery’s Board of Trustees, which has been approved by the Prime Minister, was made following the resignation of current Director Sandy Nairne in June 2014. Nicholas Cullinan will take up his new post in spring 2015.
Since joining The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in early 2013, Dr Cullinan has taken an important role in developing a number of projects including the programme for the museum’s occupancy of the Whitney Museum of Art’s Marcel Breuer building in 2016 (following the Whitney’s move to another location), expanding and redisplaying the permanent collection and increasing the Modern and Contemporary Department’s base of supporters. At the Met, he organised the exhibitions Venetian Glass by Carlo Scarpa: The Venini Company, 1932-47 (2013); Amie Siegel: Provenance (2014); and devised and led, together with co-curator Andrea Bayer, one of the Met’s opening exhibitions at the Breuer building for March 2016.