Philippe de Montebello to Teach Two New Courses at NYU By STAN PARCHIN
July 20, 2009
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Philippe de Montebello. Photograph by Don Pollard
provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
New York University announced on May 20, 2008 the appointment of Philippe de Montebello, then Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as the Institute of Fine Arts' first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums. Retired from The Met since the beginning of this year, he's scheduled to teach two new and exciting graduate-level courses in the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters.
The Meaning of Museums
The lectures survey selected issues in the prehistory of the museum, such as collecting in classical antiquity; the Ottonian Renaissance; church treasuries; the humanist studiolo and princely Kunstkammer; the birth of the ‘modern’ museum in the Enlightenment; and the early history of the major European institutions, which emerged alongside the new scientific disciplines of archaeology and art history. The outstanding concerns of our times—among them patrimony, repatriation, context, interpretation, education and professionalization—are of particular interest, and today’s museum serves as a constant against which the multiple agendas of collecting and display in the past can be assessed. As the course examines the museum as a Western European development, issues of special interest include the differences in approach between northern and southern European museums, and the relationship—historical and current—of Western museums to parts of the non-Euro-American world, in their earlier role as source-countries and more recently as players in our new age of globalization.
Issues in Cultural Property
The colloquium explores many of the historical, philosophical and museological issues behind the recent cultural property controversy. The role of plunder, war booty and illicit excavations in the history of collecting will be examined, alongside the construction of national identity and ideas of patrimony. While key legal points, treaties and conventions will be covered, it is the political, ethical, archaeological and art historical implications of the subject that will be the focus of the lectures and discussions. Case studies, some involving Italy, as well as the diverging agendas of archaeologist, source countries, collectors and museums will be addressed.
Both courses are sure to be over-subscribed.
Timothy Rub to Direct Philadelphia Museum of Art
By STAN PARCHIN
July 6, 2009
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Timothy Rub (2009). Photograph by Kelly & Massa provided by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.. |
The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced on June 28, 2009 its Board of Trustees' unanimous election of Timothy Rub as the next George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer. The Cleveland Museum of Art's Director and Chief Executive Officer since January 2006, Rub succeeds the late Anne d'Harnoncourt after an international year-long search. He assumes his new post in September 2009.
Education
Timothy Rub, 57, earned a bachelor's degree in art history with honors from Middlebury College, a master's degree in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and a second master's degree in public and private management from Yale University. He specializes in architecture and modern art.
Experience
Rub was a Ford Foundation Fellow and then Curator at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum from 1983 to 1987. He directed the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College from 1991 to 1999 and the Cincinnati Art Museum from 2000 to 2006.
Among the major loan exhibitions Rub developed are: The Age of the Marvelous (1991); Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens (1992); Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1928-1934 (2002-03); and Petra: Lost City of Stone (2004-07).
While at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Rub managed the Ohio institution's fundraising campaign, oversaw the reinstallation of its European and American art collections, helped to complete Phase One of architect Rafael Viñoly's seven-year renovation project and expanded its touring exhibitions program. He was responsible for important acquisitions, including a 10th-century Chola temple sculpture of the Hindu god Shiva and a late 13th-century illuminated Bible.
H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest, Chairman of the Board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said, “Timothy Rub brings a proven track record in scholarship, connoisseurship and excellent management and fundraising skills. He comes with strong expertise in planning at a time when the museum is preparing to move forward with the next phase of its renovation and growth.”