September 10, 2008

Thomas Campbell named new Met Museum director

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has gone in-house to hire its next director and CEO, Thomas P. Campbell, currently the Met’s curator of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.

Come January 1, he will become the ninth director of the 138-year-old museum, replacing Philippe de Montebello, who has run the Met for 31 years.

“I am delighted at the choice of my successor by the search committee and subsequently by election of the Board,” de Montebello said in a statement issued Tuesday.”Tom Campbell, in my view, is absolutely the right selection, as an outstanding art historian of proven experience and judgment who fits perfectly into the long tradition of Met leadership that emerges from within the curatorial ranks, which has been the case for all but two of his predecessors in more than a century.”

Campbell, who has been at the Met since 1995, has a specialty in European tapestry. He organized the exhibitions “Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence” in 2002, “Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor,” in 2007 and is the Supervising Curator of the Museum’s Antonio Ratti Textile Center. The 46-year-old Campbell was born in Cambridge, England, received his B.A. in English language and literature from the University of Oxford, a Diploma from Christie’s Fine and Decorative Arts course in London, a Ph. D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art and created the Franses Tapestry Archive in London.

“Since joining the museum in 1995, I have developed a profound respect and affection for this unique institution, its encyclopedic collections, and above all its talented staff,” Campbell said in a statement. “I pledge to them that I will do everything in my power to lead the Museum wisely and productively during the coming years. Together we will build on the Met’s traditions of scholarship and openness, to ensure that our diverse audiences continue to be welcomed, challenged, and inspired in ways that are fresh and relevant for the age in which we live.”

Next month, the museum will open an exhibition marking the transition: “The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions.”

The selection of the new Met director is the biggest announcement for the season thus far, but not the only. Other New York City museums have recently announced high-profile shuffling as well.

The Sun last week reported the Guggenheim is likely to name Richard Armstrong as its new director, replacing Thomas R. Krens.

Also last week, the Museum of Modern Art announced it appointed Ann Temkin as its Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture. Temkin replaces John Elderfield, who retired in July.

Temkin has served as MoMA’s Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA since 2003 and has played “a key role in the Museum’s acquisition of important works by artists such as Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys, Robert Gober, Roni Horn, Donald Judd, Gordon Matta-Clark, Rosemarie Trockel, and Kara Walker,” according to the MoMA statement announcing her promotion. “She has also prioritized collecting the work of younger artists, including new work by Martin Creed, Rachel Harrison, Lucy McKenzie, Jim Lambie, Wade Guyton, and Kelley Walker, and was instrumental in bringing to the Museum the gift of outstanding bodies of works by Philip Guston and Vija Celmins, among many others, from the collection of Edward R. Broida.”

Related: Read “How Medieval and Renaissance Tapestries Were Made” and “European Tapestry Production and Patronage, 1400–1600 ” on the Met’s website, both written by Thomas P. Campbell.

Image source: The Triumph of the Church over Ignorance and Blindness (detail) from the ‘07 campbell-curated Met exhibition “Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor.”
Full credit: From a twenty-piece set of the Triumph of the Eucharist
Design by Peter Paul Rubens, ca. 1626–28
Woven in the workshop of Jan Raes II, Brussels, ca. 1626–33
Wool and silk; 16 ft. 1 in. x 24 ft. 8 in. (490 × 752 cm)
Brussels mark in bottom selvage at far right; weaver’s name IAN.RAES.F. in bottom selvage at right; inscribed ECCLESIAE TRIUMPHUS in central cartouche
Patrimonio Nacional, Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid (TA-D/3 00610325)

September 10, 2008 10:09 AM in Midtown, Museums, Upper East Side

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