A Woman Who Is a Rare Find Among Museum Leaders
- 6 years ago
A Woman Who Is a Rare Find Among Museum Leaders
The Louvre Abu Dhabi project — for which Abu Dhabi agreed to pay around 1 billion euros, or about $1.2 billion, to the Louvre
and a group of other French museums — drew howls of disapproval from French art circles when it was announced.
I never had any doubts about Louvre Abu Dhabi." She said
that she was "proud" of the museum (which was inaugurated in November), and that she learned a lot there: "I would not be the president of Orsay if I hadn’t had the experience of Louvre Abu Dhabi." As president of two museums — meaning the equivalent of both chairwoman and director — she no longer has time to curate.
We’re figuring out what we’re trying to say with these collections, how we’re going to say it, and how we’re going to address today’s audiences.
As Philippe Dagen, the art critic of Le Monde, wrote when her appointment was announced, "Her job will be to bring about more serenity after years marked by the very personal — and sometimes internally disputed — management style of her predecessor, Guy Cogeval." It helped, also,
that in the three years before her nomination, she organized shows on boundary-pushing or unexpected themes that pulled in audiences that were bigger than the usual museum-going crowd.
We’re getting ready to rehang the collections of the Musée d’Orsay and of the Musée de l’Orangerie.
Another box-office hit was "American Painting in the 1930s," held at the Orangerie
and organized jointly with the Art Institute of Chicago, which showcased works by Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper, and Grant Wood’s "American Gothic." Her seven years in Abu Dhabi were not without challenges.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi project — for which Abu Dhabi agreed to pay around 1 billion euros, or about $1.2 billion, to the Louvre
and a group of other French museums — drew howls of disapproval from French art circles when it was announced.
I never had any doubts about Louvre Abu Dhabi." She said
that she was "proud" of the museum (which was inaugurated in November), and that she learned a lot there: "I would not be the president of Orsay if I hadn’t had the experience of Louvre Abu Dhabi." As president of two museums — meaning the equivalent of both chairwoman and director — she no longer has time to curate.
We’re figuring out what we’re trying to say with these collections, how we’re going to say it, and how we’re going to address today’s audiences.
As Philippe Dagen, the art critic of Le Monde, wrote when her appointment was announced, "Her job will be to bring about more serenity after years marked by the very personal — and sometimes internally disputed — management style of her predecessor, Guy Cogeval." It helped, also,
that in the three years before her nomination, she organized shows on boundary-pushing or unexpected themes that pulled in audiences that were bigger than the usual museum-going crowd.
We’re getting ready to rehang the collections of the Musée d’Orsay and of the Musée de l’Orangerie.
Another box-office hit was "American Painting in the 1930s," held at the Orangerie
and organized jointly with the Art Institute of Chicago, which showcased works by Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper, and Grant Wood’s "American Gothic." Her seven years in Abu Dhabi were not without challenges.