Met's De Montebello Resigns
Philippe Montebello, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the past 30 years, announced to the Met’s board of trustees yesterday afternoon that he will resign from his post at the end of the year or until they could find a replacement.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Montebello said that after a packed fall season and the completion of several big long-term projects like new galleries for Greek and Roman art and European paintings, he felt the time was right.
“After three decades, to stay much further would be to skirt decency,” he said. "This has not been an easy decision — it’s wrenching for me, it’s been my entire life. But it’s time.”
James R. Houghton, chairman of the museum’s board, said he was not surprised by the announcement. “It has been in his mind for some time now,” he said in an interview. “It was a mutual decision and I think the right one.”
Yet he added: “To look for somebody to fill his shoes will be very hard. The pool of potential candidates is smaller than it once was.”
It could never be said,It could never be flatly stated or the official conclusion be made-to the effect-A personality of great influnce and contribution-In such cultural establishements as THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART-"gives up the job".Great Individuals of the orgnization and presentation of the Arts and Crafts do as a matter of fact leave a "void" situation one time or another from the Technical or administrative prespectives for The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Decades of leadership would be marked how the cultural institute is orgnized,how it performs within the range of a given cultural society as well as its plans for expansions and reforms.The Leadership of The Metroplitan Museum of Art seem currently to face and debate the impact of the material heritage SWAP between Europe and The Americas.Such developments are evident as factor for a shake-up of leadership at the Metropolitan.The sense of lose is natural for all leaders in the orgnization of human culture-to express resignation to a particular establishement with a given collection that spans other nations and people.
From Artnet News:
SUCCESSORAMA AT THE MET
Longtime Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello, 71, has announced his resignation, effective by the end of 2008. The move was big news, reported on news radio and splashed across the pages of the New York Times in three lavishly illustrated stories on Wednesday, including one on the front page and two on the first arts section page. The reaction is a sign of the popularity of both de Montebello and his museum, easily the best-run in the city.
The resignation also kicked off the newest edition of a favorite art-world parlor game -- call it "Successorama" -- asking the question, "Who do you think will succeed Philippe?" Don’t believe anybody who tells you that they don’t want the job. That claim is right up there with "the check is in the mail," "I don’t mind if you date other people" and "I’ll have the article in by the end of the day."
The names on the short list are familiar to regular players of the game, and their qualifications are presented here along with some curmudgeonly objections.
* Neil MacGregor, 61, director of the British Museum since 2002, former head of the National Gallery, London, and editor-in-chief of the Burlington Magazine, is erudite, charming and exceedingly qualified. Though a leftist in the British mold who may not want to take on a third museum bureaucracy, he has a great friendship with Jayne Wrightsman, the unofficial "first lady" of the Met -- and that may be enough.
* James Cuno, 54, director of the Art Institute of Chicago since 2004 and former head of the Harvard University Art Museums, is a whiz at raising money and building wings, typically catnip for trustees -- though the Met hardly needs either at this stage. But Cuno has just lent the AIC Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth for the summer, which seems a wrong move if you hope lure tourists and boost your attendance. What’s more, he has a distaste for blockbusters, and why would the Met want that?
* Glenn D. Lowry, 53, director of the Museum of Modern Art, is another specialist in oomphy expansion and building projects. But Lowry is accused of alienating his staff -- both his contemporary and painting-and-sculpture curators quit not long after his appointment -- whereas what made the Met tick under de Montebello was the free hand he gave his curators. Plus, most critics have taken a dim view of the "MoMA miracle." Does the Met need that?
* Michael Govan, 43, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 2006, is much-loved in L.A., though his close association with contemporary art may not win him any friends on the Met’s search committee. And, it would be bad form to leave the LACMA post so soon after accepting it.
* Timothy Potts, 49, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and former director of the Kimbell. Though considered a front-runner by many, don’t forget that Potts was the guy who wanted to cover the Louis Kahn concrete walls with green velvet. Plus, is the Met ready for an Australian director?
* Gary Tinterow, 54, curator of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art at the Met, is my bet. His 19th-century exhibitions have been popular, especially among scholars, and his moves in the contemporary field -- notably borrowing Damien Hirst’s shark sculpture from hedge-fund billionaire Steven Cohen -- hit just the right note for the Met. Though he has a reputation for being imperious (as did de Montebello), he has been "getting nicer," according to one insider. What’s more, he has much experience with the institution, and is a good friend of Wrightsman.
A longer list of possible candidates would have to include Michael Conforti, head of the Clark Art Institute; Ronald de Leeuw, retiring director of Rijksmuseum Amsterdam; former Guggenheim Museum director Lisa Dennison; Anne d’Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Jean-Hubert Martin, director of the Museum Kunst Palast Foundation in Düsseldorf (the French play great at the Met); Frick Collection director Anne Poulet; Jock Reynolds, director of Yale University Art Gallery; and Tate head Nick Serota.
Plus, a dark-horse candidate is always a possibility. Mayor Bloomberg, anyone? If he doesn’t make a White House run. . . .
-- Paul Jeromack