Robert Storr is the new curator of the department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. He succeeds Linda Shearer, who left in 1989 to become the director of the Williams College Museum of Art. This particular curatorship, which has been vacant for a year, is a notoriously demanding post, hampered by an administrative body that apparently has little time for the latest trends in contemporary art. Shearer is reported to have left thoroughly disillusioned because her department was allotted so little time and space (in all her four years at the museum, she was only able to organize one exhibition of contemporary art, of works by Vito Acconci).
Well aware of these problems, Storr left it a whole year before accepting the offer by Kirk Varnedoe, Director of Painting and Sculpture.
Storr, who is a painter as well as a critic, plans to organise major exhibitions by contemporary artists and topical shows. He will also be responsible for the small exhibitions in the “Projects” series, which are curated by staff from all six departments of the Moma. He will play an active role in purchasing works for the museum. Storr trained at Swarthmore College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has taught in various American institutes and universities and works on the monthly publication, “Art in America”. He has also published works on Phillip Guston, Chuck Lee and Louise Bourgeois (in course of publication).
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Moma’s new Curator of Painting and Sculpture'