Phillipe de Montebello has been director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for thirty years, but announced on Tuesday that he will step down by the end of the year. “After three decades, to stay much further would be to skirt decency,” he told the NY Times.
While he claims that he is “not the Met,” de Montebello’s career has truly been synonymous with the institution as any long standing director would be. Under his leadership, the Met has grown in all key areas. De Montebello has been instrumental in increasing attendance (which peaked at 5.1M visitors before 9/11) with world class exhibitions of work by da Vinci, Velazquez and Vermeer and was the driving force behind major acquisitions such as the purchase of important paintings by Duccio, van Gogh and Vermeer. The long time director also oversaw impressive gallery renovations that show the permanent collection to it’s best potential.
But de Montebello’s tenure was not without controversy. He has come under fire for not paying enough attention to contemporary art. De Montebello seemed to be addressing these concerns in recent years dwith the Museum’s purchase of Jasper Johns’ White Flag, survey of Chuck Close the three year loan of Damien Hirst’s “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” installation of a shark preserved in formaldehyde.
The question now turns to who the Met will choose as his successor. Obviously the search is important as the new director will be charged with preserving and continuing to grow one of the world’s most prominent art institutions. Yet, the pool of candidates is dwindling. Efforts such as the Center for Curatorial Leadership are underway to increase the numer of qualified museum directors, but those are long term solutions in their nascent years. And the Met will need to compete for candidates with other well known institutions such as the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. The search committee definitely has a challenging job ahead of them and has big shoes to fill.
JeanDarcel Michel said
Mr. Montebello was certainly a great director for the museum. I would like to see if one of his last contribution to the museum could include the acquisition of my late father in law’s work. His name was Jean-Claude Garoute AKA TIGA. A great Haitian artist. Recipient of Haiti’s “Commander award” from president Renne Preval, many other citations from the mayor of Broward county Florida, the councilman’s office in Queens, Brooklyn District Arttorney’s office. Tiga’s accomplishments has been enormous in the world of art with his own Soleil Brule technique of paintings, his own style which is visible even in his acrylic paintings . Tiga proud himself in helping others with his artistic rotation system to help children or adults alike to balance themselves. He was the founder of the Saint Soleil program which impressed Andre Malreaux to the point that he emitted a chapter from his book L’intemporel to include the Saint Soleil painters. A man of his statue deserve the world as audience. I hope that you add Tiga to the list of your enormous contribution to the museum.